What is the best offline speech to text app for Android?

There is no single best app. Offline recognition on Android depends on the phone, the keyboard and the language, and a ranking would hide that. Use the voice input already built into your keyboard first, test it with the phone in airplane mode, and only then install a separate app. For most people the choice is between the built-in keyboard, which works offline only for some languages, and a third-party app with a narrower language list.

Start with the voice input in your keyboard

The two keyboards most Android users have are Gboard and Samsung Keyboard. Both can recognize speech on the phone, but how far that goes depends on your language.

For Gboard, Google's 2019 recognizer was built to run on the phone. Google said its server-side recognizer used a search graph of almost 2 GB, too large for a phone, which is why it needed a connection ¹. The on-device model that replaced it was 80 MB after compression ². That first release was narrow: Google said it launched to all Pixel phones in American English only ³.

Later coverage is broader but still says less than you need. In February 2025, 9to5Google reported that Gboard for Android features offline voice typing on all devices ⁴. That report is about which devices have the feature, not which languages work offline. A device can have offline voice typing and still lack it for your language.

Samsung Keyboard has a different setup. Its keyboard settings include an Offline voice input section where you install offline language packs ⁵. Install the pack for your language, then test it. The pack list is what decides the answer, not the phone model.

What we could not confirm for Gboard and Samsung

The current offline language list for Gboard is the one thing we could not check. Google's Gboard help page did not open during our research, because Google sent the request to a verification page. A current, official list of offline languages for Gboard and Samsung Keyboard was not in any source we could read. Third-party guides and forum posts disagree about it, so they are not a basis for a list here.

That gap is why the test below matters more than any list. If you cannot confirm your language offline, run the test and trust the result on your own phone.

Seamless works offline after one download, for five languages

If the built-in keyboard does not work offline for your language, Seamless is one open source option. The F-Droid listing says that once its model is downloaded, "speech to text translation works entirely offline" ⁶. The same listing says that, as a standalone app, Seamless translates between five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Russian ⁷.

Two limits apply. First, five languages is a narrow list, so Seamless is only useful if your language is one of them. Second, the F-Droid listing is the developer's own description, not an independent test, so run the airplane mode test before you rely on it.

Developer toolkits can run offline, but are not a phone keyboard

Some offline recognizers are built for developers rather than for typing. Vosk is an open source offline engine whose per-language models are about 50 MB each ⁸. It is a foundation for apps that programmers build, not a keyboard you switch on. Unless you plan to build an app, a finished keyboard or a listed app is a better choice.

How to choose an offline app on Android

1. Confirm your language. Check that the language and variant you speak is in your keyboard's offline options.
2. Test the built-in keyboard in airplane mode. Turn on airplane mode, turn off Wi-Fi, open a note, tap the microphone key and dictate a sentence with a number, a name and a comma. Words that appear with punctuation ran with no connection.
3. Try Seamless only if your language is covered. Download its model while you have a connection, then repeat the airplane mode test.
4. Repeat the test after major updates. Keyboard updates can change which languages work offline.

For the full setup steps, see offline voice typing on iPhone and Android. For the microphone key on Android, see voice typing on Android and where voice typing is on Android. If you want a free option that is not offline, see the best free voice to text app for Android. For iPhone, see does iPhone dictation work offline.

For the term, see voice typing and microphone key. For the wider overview, start with dictation on phones and tablets.