Dictation Apps on Google Play: Downloads and Ratings

Dictation on Android is mostly a story of platform software. The most downloaded voice input app in our registry is Gboard, which Google Play shows at 10,000,000,000 downloads ¹, followed by Google Assistant at 5,000,000,000 downloads ². Standalone dictation apps that people install on purpose sit several orders of magnitude lower: the leaders are around 1,000,000 downloads ³, and many sit in the thousands. The table below covers 52 apps ⁴, each read from its public US Google Play page on one day.

Keyboards and assistants reach billions, dictation apps reach millions

Google Play does not publish exact download counts. It publishes a band such as "1M+", and every number here is the floor of that band. A figure of 10,000,000,000 downloads ¹ for Gboard means at least that many installs, not that many people.

The top of the table is crowded with products that come with a phone or sit inside a large platform:

Gboard and Microsoft SwiftKey (1,000,000,000 downloads ⁵) are general keyboards where voice typing is one button among many. Their download counts say how many phones carry a keyboard, not how many people dictate with it. The dedicated voice keyboards are far smaller. FUTO Voice Input shows 50,000 downloads ⁶, and Speakly shows 10,000 downloads ⁷. Their ratings are solid, but the audience is small.

Voice assistants are the second giant group, and AI chatbots joined it

The assistant segment holds the largest brand names:

Google Assistant leads. ChatGPT voice mode (1,000,000,000 downloads ¹¹) and Gemini (1,000,000,000 downloads ¹²) have reached the same band as Android Voice Access (1,000,000,000 downloads ¹⁹). Grok, Meta AI, Perplexity and Amazon Alexa sit one band lower, at 100,000,000 downloads ¹⁴ for Grok, and Claude voice mode is lower again at 50,000,000 downloads ¹⁷.

These are chat and assistant apps first. Voice is one way to talk to them, so the download count includes many people who never speak to the app. They matter here because they compete for the same moment: you have something to say and a phone in your hand.

Standalone dictation apps split into a few leaders and a long tail

The dictation segment is where the spread is widest:

Wispr Flow and Voice Notebook share the top band, at 1,000,000 downloads ³ and 1,000,000 downloads ²⁰. Typeless follows at 500,000 downloads ²¹. Then comes a steep drop. Superwhisper and Aqua Voice both show 1,000 downloads ²⁴, and BossAI shows 100 downloads ²⁶. Contextli is at the bottom, with 50 downloads ²⁷.

Two things explain the gap. First, several of these products began on desktop or iPhone, and their Android app is newer or secondary. Second, Android users often start with the free tools already on the phone, so a paid or account-based app has to give a clear reason to switch.

Transcription and meeting apps have a clear leader each

Transcription tools mix two kinds of products. Google's Live Transcribe is built into many phones and reaches 1,000,000,000 downloads ²⁸. Paid and freemium services come next:

Speechnotes and Transkriptor each show 5,000,000 downloads ²⁹, then Notta at 1,000,000 downloads ³¹. Rev and Riverside sit at 500,000 downloads ³². Good Tape is at 10,000 downloads ³⁴.

Meeting notes follow the same shape on a smaller scale. Otter.ai leads with 5,000,000 downloads ³⁶ and also carries one of the best ratings in the table. Fireflies.ai shows 500,000 downloads ³⁷, Krisp 100,000 downloads ³⁸, and Read AI 50,000 downloads ³⁹. Wearable-linked or newer tools such as Limitless (5,000 downloads ⁴⁰) and Bee (5,000 downloads ⁴¹) are far behind, and Limitless carries the lowest rating among the meeting tools.

Voice notes and professional tools are niches

Voice notes apps reach the hundred-thousands at best. Letterly and Voicenotes each show 100,000 downloads ⁴², AudioPen shows 50,000 downloads ⁴³, and Flint shows 100 downloads ⁴⁴. Letterly has the stronger rating of the first two.

Medical and professional dictation is smaller still. Nabla shows 5,000 downloads ⁴⁵ and Lexacom 500 downloads ⁴⁶. These products are sold to clinics and firms, so a small public install base fits how they are bought. Neither shows a star rating.

Ratings are high for most apps, but they rest on very different amounts of evidence

Most apps with a visible rating sit in the four-star range. The apps with the best scores include Grok, Otter.ai, Read AI, ChatGPT voice mode and Bluedot. The weakest are Limitless, Superwhisper, Pi and Google's own Recorder, followed by Android Voice Access, Google Assistant and Live Transcribe.

The pattern is useful. Tools bundled with a phone collect many ratings from people who never chose them, and those ratings run lower. Apps people install on purpose tend to score higher. But the count of ratings matters as much as the score. Dictation Daddy and Voicy have only a handful of ratings behind them, so their stars say almost nothing. Only a small share of installs ever leave a rating, so a score from a few dozen people should be read as a hint.

Where the data stops

• Bands, not counts. Growth only shows when an app crosses into the next band. An app can double and look unchanged.
• Installs, not users. A download is an install. It does not tell you how many people still use the app, or whether they use its voice features.
• Bundled apps inflate the top. Recorder (Google Pixel) shows 1 downloads ³⁵ yet has a large number of ratings. It ships on Pixel phones, so its Play count misses nearly everyone who uses it. The same caution applies to Gboard, Live Transcribe and Android Voice Access.
• Missing ratings. Several apps, including Contextli, Good Tape, Nabla, Avoma, Leexi, Rimo and Bee, show no star rating on the day we read them, so they are left blank.
• Google Play only. Apps that live on iPhone, desktop or the web are outside this table. Several leading dictation tools are mostly used there, so low Android numbers do not mean low use overall.
• One day, US listing. Every row is the US page as shown on one date. Other countries and later dates can differ.

For wider context on who uses these tools and how the market fits together, see our market overview.

What this means if you are choosing how to write on a phone

Start with what your phone already has. Gboard and the built-in voice typing reach billions of people, and they cost nothing. If they handle your language and your accuracy needs, you do not need another app. Our guide to phones and tablets explains what built-in dictation can and cannot do.

Switch when you have a specific reason. If you need long notes, cleaned-up text, or recordings turned into transcripts, the transcription and voice notes groups hold the established choices, with Otter.ai at 5,000,000 downloads ³⁶ and Transkriptor at 5,000,000 downloads ³⁰. If you want offline, open-source voice input on a keyboard, FUTO Voice Input is the visible option.

Treat download bands as a signal of reach, not quality. A small app with a high rating from a few hundred people can fit you better than a giant with a middling score, and a large app with few ratings per install can still be mediocre. Try two or three candidates for a week on your own messages before you commit.