Speech to text dictation software for windows

Press the comment bubble icon to see text commands while you're dictating, or say "What can I say? Once you complete a dictation, you can email, share e. You can perform these actions manually or by voice command e. Accuracy is good and improves with use: my first test produced 13 errors, and my second test only flubbed nine.

Recommendation: Because Dragon is a relatively large investment, you should be seriously committed to using dictation regularly. I recommend trying Dragon Anywhere free for seven days to see how you like it first. Dragon desktop products are available in several languages, which vary by version, and include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Gboard Android, iOS. Google's excellent Gboard app, which includes dictation, works with both Android and iOS. To use it, go anywhere you can type email, browser, text, document , and the keyboard will pop up. Tap the microphone icon at the top right of the keyboard, and start speaking when prompted. It will very quickly capture your voice into text as fast as you're able to talk. It's scary how fast it transcribes.

Not only that, it's highly accurate. It was the only app that captured "birdcast" albeit uncapitalized , the name of a birding website, and it made only three dictation errors. Note: If you stop speaking for about 10 seconds, the microphone turns off, so you'll have to tap it again.

You have the option to personalize the app, which allows Gboard to recognize your voice usage patterns and improve on them, increasing accuracy over time. I've dictated texts in the car with the radio on, and it's still nearly perfect.

It's also good at not including stammers, likely as a result of learning my speech patterns. Note: I've been using Gboard for about six years. It has learned my voice and speech patterns, so it's not surprising that it was the most accurate in my test. Gboard price : Free. Gboard accuracy: In transcribing a word passage, Gboard made just three errors.

Recommendation : Gboard spits out your words on screen as fast as you can say them. For faster talkers, it will feel just right, but for others, it may take getting used to. If you want to dictate texts, emails, or any other short note, use Gboard. Google Docs voice typing Web on Chrome. Google Docs includes a dictation feature that's both highly accurate and easy to use, called Google Docs voice typing —but you have to be using Chrome to access this feature.

Click on it, and start talking. If you're idle for about 30 seconds, the microphone automatically stops. Click on it again to resume. You can use the same process to dictate speaker notes in a Slides presentation. If you need help or you want a list of commands, click on the question mark within the microphone icon. Help will pop up on the right where you can scroll or search to find voice commands such as punctuation, text formatting, editing, and even moving around your document.

Google Docs voice typing price : Free. Most of the errors were for capitalizing words in the middle of sentences, such as untold, decline, and discovery. Recommendation : If you're a Google Docs power user and want dictation capability, voice typing is an excellent choice for its accuracy and many voice commands. Google Docs integrates with Zapier , which means you can automatically do things like save form entries to Google Docs, create new documents whenever something happens in your other apps, or create project management tasks for each new document.

SpeechTexter Web on Chrome, Android. SpeechTexter is supported only using the Chrome browser or with the Android mobile app iPhones and iPads are not supported. Many free dictation sites have an annoying number of ads, but this one keeps it to a manageable one or two. And they do have a privacy policy that states that, while they don't store any of your text, it is processed by Google's servers. Just keep that in mind. To start, select your language.

For English speakers, there are an impressive 16 different dialects from countries such as Ghana, Hong Kong, and Pakistan and a total of 73 different languages. Then in the top-left corner, click Start, and begin.

As you're talking, your speech is captured in a pop-up window briefly and then quickly transcribed on the screen with little delay. As you talk, a word count displays in real-time at the bottom-right. Voice commands are placed handily to the right of the main window. If you want to create your own command, click the pencil icon, then the plus sign and add a command.

I added a command, "quotes," for quotation marks and changed the command for "period" to "stop. Enabling the auto-save feature prevents you from losing work if your browser or window is closed inadvertently. If that happens, just bring the site back up, and your previous dictation will appear on the screen. SpeechTexter price: Free. The most common mistakes were randomly capitalizing words in the middle of sentences, which is unsurprising, as it runs on the same speech engine as Google Docs see its accuracy results above.

Recommendation : If you use Chrome and occasionally need dictation, SpeechTexter is a good choice for its accuracy and ease of use. SpeechTexter supported languages : SpeechTexter supports speech to text in 73 languages, plus dozens of dialects.

While not perfect, the accuracy of most dictation software is excellent. That and the already free versions packaged with so many devices and apps make using the technology—at least for quicker tasks like note taking—an easy decision. If you spend a lot of time writing for work or even fun, it makes sense to try dictation just to get the feel of speaking the words that normally come through your fingers.

This may be the hardest part for many users—old habits die hard. Once and if you get used to dictating your thoughts, you may find it hard to go back to typing. This article was originally published in April Previous versions had contributions from Emily Esposito and Jill Duffy.

Chris is a writer and business professional with 25 years of experience in a variety of roles. He likes books, bikes, brews, birds, and travel. He and his wife live in an old mining town north of Denver. Why Zapier? How Zapier works.

Product tour. Customer stories. Popular ways to use Zapier. Read our full Dragon Anywhere review. One of the few dictation software platforms that can come close to Dragon is Otter. This popular software package is one of the easiest to use. It comes with several advanced features that separate it from some of the lower-ranked providers in this list.

One of our favorite features is speaker identification. This is ideal for meetings or for when multiple are speaking in succession. When Otter software identifies a change in the speaker, it will signal this in the transcribed text. Otter also allows you to record from directly within the app, or import audio and video files stored on your device. And unlike Dragon, an Otter subscription includes a mobile version of the software.

There are three Otter plans available. The free-forever plan is competitive and enables you to transcribe up to minutes of audio per month. The Premium Plan includes minutes of transcription per month and a suite of premium features. A Teams plan offers all features mentioned above plus enterprise-specific features. Read our full Otter review. Built directly into Microsoft Word , and included with all Microsoft subscriptions, it is a powerful and accurate dictation tool.

The platform relies on vast amounts of training data and artificial neural networks, meaning it is continuously improving its ability to transcribe voice to text. There are few standout features to mention, but we see this as a strength. It is accessible directly from the Word application, and it only takes one click to begin voice typing. Several voice commands enable you to take control of the document.

These include punctuation marks and formatting tools. Read our full Microsoft Word review. If you are looking for a staring program about dictation software, Windows Speech Recognition plus Cortana, an AI assistant, can be a good choice.

Speech to text Converter is a very simple but powerful dictation tool to convert voice into plain text. Compared with Windows Speech Recognition, it has faster reaction speed and higher accuracy. After downloading and installing, Dictation ribbon will appear in your Office software. In addition to the function of speech to text, what you speak can be turned into another language in written words. For example, you need to write French, but you can only speak English.

Dictate can help you. Just settle the language options from English to French, your requirement will be satisfied. If your computer is equipped with windows system and office software, Dictate can be a considerable choice for you. As you can see, each dictation tool or software above has its own features and advantages. They can satisfy different people with different requirements.

All in all, online dictation tools can be used without downloading and installing, and what I highly recommend is Dictation. As for the dictation software belong to the second category, I commend Speech to Text Converter for its high accuracy rate and fast reaction speed.

The most important is that all these speech-to-text tools I share today are free. Be prepared with a good-quality microphone and internet connection, which guarantee your success of converting speech to text. Try your best to speak like a broadcaster. When you have done this, your working efficiency can be ensured. All you need to do is to drag and drop the audiobooks to the software, click the Convert button to start the conversion.

Michelle loves reading very much. She seeks the methods to enjoy eBooks and audiobooks more freely and wants to share everything new she has got with you.

For hands free typing, the best app to use is "Dictation Pro". I am using this app to create my emails, docs, letters and much more. It helps me a lot even with formatting my document using voice commands.