Voice Typing on Android: How to Use Talk to Text

On Android, talk to text is the microphone key at the top of the Gboard keyboard. Tap a text field, tap Microphone, wait for Speak now, and talk ¹. Samsung Galaxy phones also have their own voice input, so the steps depend on which keyboard you type with. This guide gives the steps for Gboard and for Samsung, the punctuation and commands that work, the settings that change results, and the limits that the sources report. For a short answer, see where voice typing is on Android.

Talk to text on Android is the microphone key in Gboard

Gboard is Google's keyboard app. Its voice typing is the microphone key on the keyboard, and it works in any app where you can type with a keyboard. Google's example apps are Gmail and Keep ².

Four steps cover the basic use, from Google's Gboard help page:

1. Install Gboard on your Android phone or tablet if it is not already your keyboard.
2. Open an app you can type in, such as Gmail or Keep, and tap a text field.
3. At the top of your keyboard, tap Microphone.
4. When you see Speak now, say what you want written.

The first time you tap Microphone, Android asks for permission to record. The three choices are While using app, Only this time and Don't allow ³. Google's help page explains that While using app allows voice recording any time you use the app, Only this time allows it once, and Don't allow stops voice recording. If the microphone key does nothing, check this choice first.

On a tablet, voice typing uses a toolbar you can move anywhere on the screen

Google's Gboard help describes a tablet route with a voice toolbar. Open an app where you can type, such as Gmail or Keep, tap a text field, and tap Microphone. If prompted, choose a recording option. On first use, Gboard directs you to the toolbar. To return to the full keyboard, tap Keyboard. To bring the toolbar back, tap Minimize. You can drag the toolbar to any area on the screen, including the sides. These steps come from Google's Gboard help, which lists the tablet and phone routes separately.

Fix a word, add an emoji or pause by voice

Three shortcuts sit on the same help page. To replace a word, touch and hold the word in your text, tap Microphone at the top of the keyboard, and say the new word when you see Speak now. To pause voice recording, tap Microphone again. To add an emoji, say the emoji or tap Emoji in the toolbar and choose the one you want. For commands that edit and format text on a computer, see dictation commands for editing and formatting.

Samsung phones have two voice input tools, and the keyboard you use decides which one you get

Samsung says its Galaxy phones and tablets have two built-in voice-to-text apps, Samsung voice input and Google Voice Typing. Samsung voice input works only with the Samsung Keyboard ⁴. If you type with Gboard, use its microphone key instead. On a Samsung Keyboard, Samsung's guide says to tap the Microphone icon on the keyboard's toolbar ⁵, then talk while the icon is active. The guide is Samsung's keyboard page.

To turn on Google Voice Typing, tap the switch next to its name on that last screen ⁶. Samsung's offline language packs sit in the Offline voice input section of the voice input settings ⁷. Samsung's page warns that available screens and settings vary by software version and phone model, so check the names on your own phone. The page is Samsung's guide to keyboard settings.

Choose between the two Samsung tools by the keyboard you want to keep. If you like the Samsung Keyboard, Samsung voice input is built into it, and its offline language packs are managed in the same settings area. If you prefer Gboard's layout, use its microphone key, and turn on Google Voice Typing only if you want Google's voice input outside Gboard. Either way, the keyboard you choose decides which voice tool shows up when you tap the microphone.

Say the punctuation names, or use automatic punctuation on some Pixel phones

Gboard's help lists some phrases that add punctuation: Period, Comma, Exclamation point, Question mark, New line and New paragraph ⁸. The same page warns that punctuation phrases might not be available in every language ⁹. If a phrase does nothing in your language, type the mark yourself and carry on. How to dictate punctuation on Android covers the same phrases in more detail, and spoken punctuation explains the general method.

Pixel phones are different. In 2021, Google released a voice-to-text system on Android that was exclusive to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro ¹⁰. In 2022, 9to5Google, quoting its earlier review of the Pixel 6 Pro, called automatic punctuation the killer feature of that system ¹¹. Google's Gboard help also tells owners of some Pixel devices to use Advanced voice typing to type with their voice ¹². I could not open Google's separate page on Advanced voice typing, so check it on your phone for the models and punctuation it covers.

On other Android phones, plan to say the marks. Google's Gboard page describes punctuation only as phrases you say.

Gboard lists voice commands in its toolbar, not in the help page

Gboard accepts voice commands, and you can also tap a suggestion in the toolbar instead of saying the command ¹³. The help page does not print a full list. To see the commands your phone supports, tap Menu in the voice toolbar, then tap Show voice commands. The question on Gboard voice commands covers what to expect.

Offline voice typing began on Pixel phones and later reached all Android devices

Google moved Gboard's speech recognition onto the phone in 2019 ¹⁴. Before that, its traditional recognizer relied on a search graph of almost 2 GB, which was too large for a phone and needed a connection ¹⁵. The new on-device recognizer used an 80 MB model ¹⁶, and Google said it is "always available, even when you are offline" ¹⁷.

The 2025 report does not say which languages work offline, so check that your language is installed before you rely on offline use. The same report says Gboard for Android passed 10 billion downloads on the Google Play Store ²¹. That number counts installs, not people.

Speech was faster than typing on an iPhone in a lab study, but left more errors in the final text

A controlled study from Stanford University and the University of Washington tested speech and keyboard entry on an iPhone, not an Android phone. English speech reached 153 words per minute ²², and the built-in keyboard reached 52 words per minute ²³. Use these numbers as a guide to the method, not a promise for your phone.

At those rates, 1,000 words take about 6.5 minutes to dictate and 19.2 minutes to type on the keyboard ^{24 25}. The study also counted errors. Speech left fewer errors while people were entering text, with a corrected error rate of 5.30 percent against 11.22 percent for the keyboard ²⁶. But speech left slightly more errors in the final text, with an uncorrected error rate of 1.30 percent against 0.79 percent ²⁶. Read dictated text before you send it, most of all names, numbers and addresses. The same study also measured Mandarin Chinese. Speech reached 123 words per minute ²⁷, against 43 words per minute on the Pinyin keyboard ²⁸. If you dictate in a language other than English, the same test may give different results, and the punctuation phrases above may not be available in it. The authors say that results outside the laboratory still need study ²⁹.

Gboard switches languages from the toolbar, and Pixel 8 can switch between them on the fly

Gboard can switch languages during voice typing. Tap the abbreviation for your default language at the bottom left of the voice toolbar, then select a language ³⁰. In 2023, 9to5Google reported that you could also switch languages manually by switching to the relevant language keyboard ³¹.

Pixel is different. In October 2023, 9to5Google reported that on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, voice typing in Gboard could recognize multiple languages and switch between them on the fly ³². The same report said multilingual voice typing would also arrive on the Pixel 7 series ³³. Our sources on Pixel language support are dated, so check your phone's settings for the current list.

Language support is also a limit. In September 2022, the Pixel voice-to-text experience worked in three languages, English, German and Japanese ³⁴. Some of the Gboard steps also work only on Android 7.0 and later ³⁵.

Privacy: the sources do not say when every Android dictation stays on the phone

In February 2025, 9to5Google reported that Gboard features offline voice typing on all devices ²⁰. Google said in 2019 that its on-device recognizer is always available, even offline ¹⁷. Those facts show that offline dictation can run on the phone. They do not show when Gboard uses the phone and when it uses Google's servers on Android.

The iPhone version is clearer. Gboard's App Store listing says that if you use its microphone, voice input is sent to Google for transcription ³⁶. If the answer matters to you, read Google's privacy information for Gboard on your own phone before you dictate sensitive material.

Gboard on iPhone: check the App Store listing before you rely on it

Gboard is also on the App Store, and the listing is the only primary page I could open for the iPhone app. It shows the privacy statement above, but I could not confirm from a primary page whether the iPhone app still receives voice typing updates. For the question, see whether you can use Gboard voice typing on iPhone. For the dictation built into iPhone, see how to use dictation on iPhone.

Gboard works in Keep, so voice notes start with the same microphone key

Google's Gboard help names Keep as one of the apps where you can type, so the four steps above also start a note by voice ². Tap the note's text field, tap Microphone and speak. For more on notes, see how to dictate notes on Android.

Four settings change what Gboard writes, so check them before the microphone

If results are poor, check these four settings before you blame the microphone:

• Language. Google says punctuation might not be available in every language ⁹. To change language during voice typing, tap the abbreviation for your default language at the bottom left of the toolbar ³⁰.
• Punctuation. On Pixel 6 Pro voice to text, 9to5Google called automatic punctuation the killer feature in 2022 ¹¹. On other phones, say the marks yourself ⁸.
• Permission. If you choose Don't allow, voice recording is blocked ³.
• Keyboard and offline packs. Samsung voice input works only with the Samsung Keyboard ⁴, and Samsung's offline language packs are installed in its Offline voice input section ⁷.

When voice typing stops, check the keyboard, the permission and the language first

Three settings explain most of what this guide covers: the keyboard you type with, the microphone permission, and the language. If the microphone key does not appear, or voice typing stops, the guide to fixing voice typing on Android walks through those checks in order. Yap, which we make, also offers dictation on phones as well as Mac and Windows, and the comparison of dictation apps for iPhone and Android sets the built-in options beside the apps. If the built-in tools do what you need, you do not need a separate app.

Related guides and questions

• Dictation on phones and tablets: every guide in this section.
• Talk to text on Samsung Galaxy for the Samsung keyboard in more depth.
• Offline voice typing on iPhone and Android for offline use across both systems.
• Dictation commands for editing and formatting for commands on a computer.
• Dictation punctuation for the same punctuation rules on other systems.
• Google Docs voice typing for typing by voice in a browser.
• Questions: where is voice typing on Android, how to dictate punctuation on Android, Gboard voice typing commands, Gboard voice typing on iPhone and how to dictate notes on Android.