Why is the dictation button missing on my iPhone keyboard?

The microphone key is missing from your iPhone keyboard for one of two reasons. Either Enable Dictation is off, or you are typing with a third-party keyboard that does not show the key. Apple gives the fix for the first case directly, and the second case is easy to test. You do not need to reset anything to find out which one you have.

Turn on Enable Dictation first

Apple's instruction for a missing key is to open Settings, tap General, then tap Keyboard, and turn on Enable Dictation ¹. If the switch is already on, turn it off and back on, because that refreshes the setting. Apple gives the same path to turn dictation off, which is useful if you want to confirm where the switch is ².

Once the switch is on, open a text field and look for the microphone key on the keyboard. If you do not see it, go to the next check.

A third-party keyboard may not show the key

The second cause is the keyboard itself. Apple's developer documentation says that a custom keyboard runs in a sandbox whose default configuration "disallows access to the network," and that users can switch on Allow Full Access to change this ³. Apple's pages I opened do not say which third-party keyboards show the Dictation key, so the sandbox is a documented limit rather than proof of the cause. Treat the test in the next section as the deciding check.

Turn on Allow Full Access only if you trust the keyboard's developer. Read the third-party keyboard and Allow Full Access entries before you change that setting.

Test with Apple's keyboard to find the cause

This test takes about 30 seconds and does not change any setting:

1. Open a text field, such as Notes, so that a keyboard appears.
2. Tap the globe key to switch between the keyboards you have installed, until Apple's keyboard is open.
3. Look for the microphone key on the keyboard.

If the key appears on Apple's keyboard and not on the other one, the third-party keyboard is the cause. You can keep using it for typing and switch to Apple's keyboard whenever you want to dictate. If the key is missing on Apple's keyboard too, the cause is the Enable Dictation switch, so return to the first section.

Dictation depends on the keyboard language

Dictation also follows the language of the keyboard you are using. Apple says that "when you use a keyboard for another language, you can use Dictation in that language as well" ⁴. If you have several keyboards, a key that is missing on one may be present on another, so check each one you use. If you need dictation in a second language, add that language's keyboard first.

What to do if the key is still missing

Restart the iPhone before you try anything more. Apple's advice for system faults is to restart first and to reset all settings only if a restart does not help ⁵. If you do reset, Apple says that "Your photos, messages, apps, and documents aren't deleted." The reset does change saved settings, so set Enable Dictation and your languages again afterwards ⁶.

If the key still does not appear, contact Apple Support with your iOS version and the keyboards you have installed. For a key that is greyed out rather than missing, read why dictation is greyed out on the iPhone. For a problem that began after an update, read why dictation stopped working after an iPhone update.

Our guide to iPhone dictation that is not working has the full set of checks in order, and the overview of this subject is dictation and voice to text on iPhone and Android. For the steps to use dictation once the key appears, see how to use dictation on iPhone.