Glossary
Connected experiences (Microsoft 365)
Connected experiences are Microsoft 365 features backed by cloud services, and Dictate is one of the experiences that analyze your content. You can turn them off in Manage Settings, but that setting also turns off other services.
Updated October 17, 20266 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called optional connected experiences.
Connected experiences is Microsoft's name for Microsoft 365 features that run on cloud services. Microsoft says some of its features "are backed by cloud-based services, which we call 'connected experiences', that provide essential functionality for those features" 1. They are not all the same kind of feature, so Microsoft groups them.
One group analyzes your content
The first group, in Microsoft's article, is experiences "that use your Microsoft 365 content to provide design recommendations, editing suggestions, data insights, and similar features" 2. The article gives PowerPoint Designer, Dictate and Translator as examples 3.
So if you use Dictate in Word, you are using one of the connected experiences. The article describes the category, not the details of each feature, so read it with the Dictate article in view. Our guide to dictation in Word covers the feature itself.
You can turn them off, but the setting is broad
Microsoft says you can turn the connected experiences off from any Microsoft 365 app, such as Word, through File > Account > Manage Settings, and there you can disable or enable either category, or both 4.
There is also a master setting. Microsoft says it "will also turn off other connected experiences, such as document co-authoring and online file storage" 5. That is a much larger change than switching off one feature. Before you use it, check which services you depend on.
An example of the trade-off
A writer who wants to keep Dictate but stop content analysis would switch off the analysis category. A team that uses co-authoring in Word needs the master setting left on. Microsoft's article does not say, for either choice, whether Dictate stops working when its category is off. Test it in your own account before you rely on it.
Why it matters for dictation
Dictate needs a reliable internet connection in any case 6. Connected experiences are a separate question from the internet requirement: they govern which Microsoft services may analyze your content. Read Microsoft's privacy statement for what is sent and stored. If you want speech recognition that stays on your device, compare an on-device tool, such as Yap, which we make, with the cloud option.
Related terms
- Dictate (Microsoft 365): the speech-to-text feature in Microsoft 365 apps.
- Transcribe (Microsoft 365): Word's file transcription feature.
- Dictation: the general act of speaking words that software writes down.
Guides that cover it
Evidence
Every number on this page, with where it comes from. Open a fact to see the exact words in its source.
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Related terms
- Voice Typing in Google Docs, Word and Every Other AppThe topic this term belongs to
- CursorlessCursorless is a spoken language for structural code editing that lets developers code by voice. Every command is an action performed on a target in the code, and it runs on Talon with a VS Code extension.
- Dictate (Microsoft 365)Dictate is the speech-to-text feature in Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Outlook and PowerPoint. It needs a Microsoft 365 subscription, a microphone and a reliable internet connection.
- Dictation (ChromeOS)Dictation on ChromeOS is a built-in accessibility feature that types recognized speech into an editable field. You turn it on with Search + D or the microphone icon in the status tray.
- Site microphone permissionSite microphone permission is the browser's setting for each website that decides whether that site may use your microphone, usually chosen when the browser prompts you. It works alongside the operating system's own microphone setting, so both must allow the microphone before a site can listen.
- Talon VoiceTalon Voice, usually called Talon, is hands-free input software for writing, coding, browsing and gaming. It runs alongside a speech-recognition engine, and it is used for voice coding, often together with the Cursorless editing language.
- Text insertionText insertion is the step where dictation software places recognized words into the text field that has the cursor. It is done either by simulating keystrokes or by pasting the text from the clipboard.
- Transcribe (Microsoft 365)Transcribe is a Word for Microsoft 365 feature that turns an uploaded audio file into text in the Transcribe pane, rather than typing your speech into the document. Its monthly limits depend on your license.
- Vibe codingVibe coding is building software by describing what you want to an AI model and accepting the code it writes, without reviewing that code. Andrej Karpathy introduced the term, and the developer Simon Willison argues for a narrower meaning than the broad one now in use.
- Voice codingVoice coding, also called programming by voice or coding by voice, is writing and editing source code by speaking instead of typing. It needs a speech-recognition engine and a separate platform that turns spoken words into code editing actions.
- Voice typing (Google Docs)Voice typing in Google Docs is a built-in speech-to-text tool that types as you speak. You start it from the Tools menu in a supported browser, and the browser controls the speech-to-text service.
- WaylandWayland is the display system that Linux desktops are moving to in place of the X Window System, called X11. Its compositor delivers input to each app, so a typing tool that worked on X11 may not type on a Wayland desktop.
- Web Speech APIThe Web Speech API is a set of browser interfaces that let a web page start speech recognition and receive the recognized words as text, through an object called SpeechRecognition. Where the recognition runs, on your device or on a server, depends on the browser.