How do you dictate and send a text message hands-free?

You can dictate and send a text without typing, in two ways. You can speak the words with the keyboard's microphone and send the message yourself, or you can ask a voice assistant to take the message and send it. Both paths still need a final step from you. On iPhone, Siri reads the text back and waits for your confirmation before it sends ¹. The keyboard route never sends a message until you press send.

"Hands-free" means different things on each route. The keyboard microphone still needs a tap to start, and a voice assistant needs a spoken command to begin. Read the section that matches your phone.

Dictate with the keyboard, then send it yourself

This route gives you the most control, because you see every word before you send.

1. Turn Dictation on once: open Settings, tap General, then Keyboard, and turn on Enable Dictation ².
2. Open the message, tap the text box, and tap the microphone key on the keyboard.
3. Speak the message. The keyboard stays open while you dictate, so you can switch between speaking and typing ³.
4. Read the text, correct any error, then tap send.

Dictation stops on its own after 30 seconds without speech on iPhone ⁴. For a longer message, tap the microphone key again and carry on. On Android, Gboard works the same way: tap the text box, tap the microphone at the top of the keyboard, and speak when you see "Speak now" ⁵.

Ask Siri to send the message on iPhone

Siri can take a message from start to finish. The iMore walkthrough describes the flow: you say the command, choose the contact, dictate the text, and Siri reads it back. Siri then waits for you to confirm before it sends ¹. The article is from April 2022, so the exact prompts may differ on your version of iOS.

Read the reply before you confirm it. A recognizer can misread a name or a number, and the read-back is your chance to catch that before the message leaves the phone.

On Android, Gemini is replacing Google Assistant, so the old command may not work

On Android, the 2021 Make Tech Easier guide describes the command "Send a message to", followed by a contact name. Google Assistant then asks you to speak the message and sends it after you confirm ⁶.

Do not assume that command works on your phone today. Google announced in March 2025 that it would replace Google Assistant on Android phones with Gemini later that year ⁷. Google's help page says that when you switch to Gemini, Gemini replaces Google Assistant as the primary assistant on your device ⁸. In September 2026, 9to5Google reported that Google Assistant was gone on every device and account it checked in the US and Europe ⁹. We did not find a Google help page that confirms the voice message command with Gemini, so check Gemini's help on your phone before you rely on a voice command.

It depends on your phone, your app and the words you say

The last row is a gap in this page. We looked for a source on how AirPods change the dictation or Siri steps and found none, so we do not give those steps.

Limits to plan around

Any speech recognizer can misread names, numbers and unusual words, so reading the text before you send is the step that matters most. If you are somewhere loud, a car or a crowded room for example, use the keyboard route and check each line, rather than trusting a single spoken command.

Privacy depends on where the speech is processed. On iPhone, dictation in many languages is processed on the device and needs no internet connection ¹⁰. Your iPhone shows in Keyboard settings whether dictated audio is processed on the device or sent to Apple's servers ¹¹, so check that setting for your language before you dictate something private.

What to do

1. Turn on Enable Dictation on iPhone, or check that Gboard's microphone works on Android.
2. For a message you must get right, dictate with the keyboard, read it, then send it.
3. For a quick message on iPhone, ask Siri, then confirm the text when it is read back.
4. On Android, test the assistant command on your own phone before you depend on it.

For the full steps on voice in WhatsApp and other messaging apps, see the guide to voice typing in WhatsApp and messaging apps. For the commands you can speak while you dictate, such as punctuation and corrections, see the iPhone dictation commands guide. The related questions are how to convert WhatsApp voice messages to text and why voice typing is not working in WhatsApp. The overview of dictation on phones and tablets covers the rest. For the terms, see our glossary entries for Siri and dictation.