What changed between Dragon 15 and Dragon 16?

The changes that Nuance lists for Dragon Professional 16 are about the software's environment, not its recognition. The release notes list Windows 11 support, Office 2021 support and Windows Server 2022 support, along with MouseGrid commands on up to three monitors ¹. The notes do not state a change in recognition accuracy, so they do not show that version 16 hears speech better than version 15.

According to the encyclopedia's version table, Dragon 15 was released on August 16, 2016 ². Version 16 has a stable release date of February 28, 2023 ³, but that date rests on one encyclopedia article, because Nuance's release notes give no launch date.

The release notes list new environments, not new accuracy

Windows 11 support is the most concrete change for a PC. If your computer runs a Windows version that the release notes do not list, the upgrade question is settled before accuracy comes into it. MouseGrid is Dragon's way of moving the pointer by voice, and in version 16 it works on up to three monitors. A user with several screens may find that the most useful change.

The accuracy claims are not a like-for-like comparison

Accuracy is the change most people want to know about, and the sources do not settle it. For version 15, Nuance's own sheet says accuracy improved by up to 15 percent out of the box, without training ⁴. The launch press release for the same release claimed upwards of 24 percent greater accuracy ⁵. The sources do not say what the press release measured, so the two figures cannot be reconciled.

For version 16, Nuance's store page says the product lets employees dictate documents 3 times faster than typing, with up to 99 percent recognition accuracy ⁶. That is the company's own statement. The page does not say how it was measured, on what audio or with what vocabulary. Neither set of figures is an independent test, so no source here shows the size of a 15-to-16 change in accuracy.

Version 16.1 added LibreOffice support

Nuance's release notes for version 16.1 list LibreOffice 64-bit support under What's new, followed by bug fixes and stability work ⁷. If you do not use LibreOffice, the point release changes little that you will see, and the fixes are not itemized in the What's new section.

Upgrading from 15 is automatic, and it lands on version 16.1

Dragon upgrades versions 14, 15 and 16 to version 16.1 automatically, according to the version 16.1 notes ⁸. Owners of version 15 therefore do not need to uninstall it first.

The sources do not say whether the automatic upgrade is free. If you are weighing a paid upgrade, ask the seller. We could not find a current upgrade price for version 16, so the seller is the only source for it.

What to do before you upgrade

1. Check your operating system against the Windows versions in Nuance's release notes. Confirm that your PC meets the memory and disk figures listed there before you start.
2. Decide whether Windows 11 or MouseGrid matters to you. If neither does, the release notes give you no reason to upgrade on features alone.
3. Test on your own speech. Nuance's figures are not independent. Dictate a page you have already written with your current version, then with the new one, and count the corrections in each.
4. Install 16.1 if you upgrade, since it is the newest point release in the notes.

Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. It is a different product from Dragon. If you are comparing accuracy across apps, how to improve dictation accuracy explains how to test them fairly on your own speech.

For the cost of each version, read how much Dragon NaturallySpeaking costs. For the edition differences, see Dragon Home compared with Professional. For the full release history, see our guide to Dragon versions, editions and price. For the category, see dictation software.