Dictation For Your iPhone/iPod Touch

Back in December Nuance, makers of the award-winning Dragon NaturallySpeaking, surprised everybody by releasing two apps for the iPhone – Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search. The former allows you to dictate text into an iPhone much like Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the PC and MacSpeech Dictate for the Mac. The latter allows you to do a variety of Internet searches using filters such as YouTube, Google, and Wikipedia using your voice. Both apps were received extremely well and were instantly considered must-haves for any iPhone user, especially considering they were both free for a limited time.

Unfortunately at the time of release they were not compatible with the iPod Touch and Nuance provided no real explanation for why this was so. Both apps require an Internet connection to function but since an iPod Touch can access the Internet via WiFi it was a mystery why they weren’t compatible with the iPod Touch. Nuance received a lot of feedback about this and thankfully they responded rather quickly as both apps are now compatible with the iPod Touch and I couldn’t be happier! Before the iPod Touch update was released I did get to try both of the apps on my brother’s iPhone over the Christmas break and I was very impressed. With iPod Touch compatibility now added I’ve been able to extensively test these two apps so I thought I’d share my experiences with you.

Initiating dictation with both apps is done by simply tapping a large button in the center of the screen. Until the latest update you had to hit a “Done” button when you were finished dictating. But the new update adds a really cool feature where both apps automatically detect when you’re done speaking and start processing your input without having to press the “Done” button at all. You can turn this feature off and on in the settings for both apps but I really don’t see why anybody would want it off because it works so well.

Input screen for Dragon Dictate

Dragon Dictation is not going to replace Dragon NaturallySpeaking or MacSpeech Dictate any time soon but it does work astonishingly well. The way that Nuance achieved this is that all inputs are processed on their servers rather than the device itself, hence the need for an Internet connection. Somehow it only takes a few seconds for your inputs to be processed. All things considered the accuracy is pretty good but there are some mistakes here and there on occasion. However when you’re done dictating you can bring up the touchscreen keyboard and make edits where necessary. You can also tap on words to bring up a contextual menu of other words to choose from that might fit better. I usually only bother making corrections if the translation is really off or if I’m writing something really important.

Once you’re ready to send the text that you just dictated you simply tap on the little “Send” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen at which point you’re presented with some options. On an iPhone you can “send to email”, “send it as text”, or “copy to clipboard”. On an iPod Touch you can do the same except for the texting part. Sending any dictations to email or for texting will open up the appropriate apps with the text inserted into the correct location. Then you only need to select a contact. The “copy to clipboard” button will allow you to theoretically paste what you just dictated into any other app that allows copy and paste, like Facebook and Twitter for example. There is a limit to the amount that you can dictate at once but you can keep stacking dictations on top of each other to create long emails or whatever. Basically a new dictation will pick up right from where the last dictation left off until you clear the screen.

Options after you're done dictating

When using Dragon Search you simply speak whatever your search query is and a few seconds later the Google search results will appear on your screen. You can cycle through the different filters by scrolling through them at the top of the screen. So for example, let’s say I say “the Rolling Stones”. A few seconds later I’d see the Google search results for that query. If I then changed the filter to YouTube the screen would then present me with a list of YouTube videos that match that query. I could then tap on a video to play it. You can also open links and view them right within the Dragon Search app itself. You could also copy the current link to the clipboard or send it to the mobile Safari app. Once in the mobile Safari app you can then bookmark it, send the link to somebody, and whatever else you can do within the app. Since I usually prefer to view web pages on my big computer screen I’ll often send links to myself from my iPod Touch, unless I’m already in front of my computer of course in which case I’ll just be using Safari there.

Dragon Search

These apps have made a huge difference for me in a couple of ways. For one, if I need to send a quick email, update my Facebook status, or post something on Twitter I can now easily and quickly do this whether I’m in front of my computer or not. I’m also no longer confined to my computer room for anything involving dictation. In fact, the first half of this article was done from my bedroom with Dragon Dictation! Once again it’s not quite as accurate as MacSpeech Dictate but it’s definitely acceptable. As soon as I was up in front of my computer I simply opened the dictations that I emailed to myself and edited them for accuracy using Keystrokes. I rarely used the Google mobile app because typing on my iPod Touch is a real pain for me but that’s no longer a problem thanks to Dragon Search. Now if I’m not in front of my computer doing an Internet search is only two taps away (open the app and tap to begin dictating my query). It’s just so incredibly simple and useful!

Now there are a couple caveats here. For one, you have to obviously be able to use an iPod Touch (or an iPhone), at least in a limited fashion, in order to use these apps. But since there is no pinching or any other complicated finger gestures required they are pretty easy to use. So if you currently can’t use one of these devices at all these two apps won’t change that. But if you can use these devices but have trouble with anything involving typing then you’re in for a big surprise. Suddenly your iPod Touch or iPhone will become much more useful than they already are!

If you’re going to use these apps with an iPod Touch your going to need to get an external microphone because the iPod Touch (2nd & 3rd generation) doesn’t have a microphone built in. I highly recommend the TouchMic Handsfree Lapel Microphone & Adapter. It’s inexpensive, works really well, and it’s small enough that you can mount it just about anywhere without it getting in the way. It uses the headphone jack on your iPod Touch but it has a headphone jack built right into it so you can still use headphones, earphones, or whatever simultaneously with it.

The final caveat is the Internet connection requirement. This won’t be an issue with an iPhone but if you have an iPod Touch your usage of these two apps will be limited to wherever you are within range of a usable WiFi hotspot. In my case I have a WiFi network in my home and I’m there most of the time so it’s not that big of an issue. However if you have an iPod Touch and aren’t in range of WiFi hotspot most of the time you might get frustrated – perhaps frustrated enough to get an iPhone. I have to admit that these two apps are so incredibly useful I’m strongly considering getting an iPhone myself so I can use them anywhere. I’m just not that thrilled with paying for a data plan because I’m not sure the amount of time I’d want to do something Internet-related away from my home would justify the cost of a data plan. But this certainly has me thinking about it.

I’m not certain these two apps are intended for assistive technology users because anybody can use them. But nevertheless they are about the biggest assistive technology upgrades to the iPhone and iPod Touch that I’ve seen to date. As of this writing they are still free so check them out!

- Paul Natsch

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