Fact · Dictation software
3.1percent of documents
3.1 percent of the transcription apps (App Store) about dictation that we coded (9 of 295) praise background noise.
Measured by us on October 19, 2026, from recordings
Our own measurement
This number comes from our benchmark, not from another publication. The full record (the setup, every recording's checksum, every transcript and timing) is published, so you can recompute it.
- What it measures
- Documents: transcription apps (App Store) that discuss dictation or speech to text, gathered from public pages and coded with a fixed codebook. Theme: Noisy places, quiet speaking, whispering, microphones, headsets.
- How it is measured
- Each document was coded by a researcher against the published codebook (themes and the problem/praise/mention polarity) before any count was made; the counts are calculated by code from the codes.
- What it does not show
- App Store pages show the reviews Apple selects (often the most helpful), not a random sample; Hacker News comments come from developers and founders. A theme counts only when the document states it.
In the data
A row of Dictation App Problems: What Users Complain About, as Background noise: 3.1 percent of documents.
- Theme
- Background noise
- Reported as
- Praise
- Documents
- Transcription apps (App Store)
- Source
- App Store
- Documents coded
- 295
- Documents with the theme
- 9