How do you voice type in Arabic?

To voice type in Arabic, choose the platform first, then the Arabic setting in that platform. On a Mac or an iPhone, Dictation offers Arabic for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In Google Docs, you get a longer list of Arabic entries, but only in a supported browser. On Windows 11, use Google Docs, because the built-in voice typing does not offer Arabic at all. Whichever you choose, test a few minutes of your own speech first, because dialect affects accuracy more than the menu does.

Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. See our download page for the languages it supports today.

Mac and iPhone offer Arabic for Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Apple's Mac feature list for Dictation names two Arabic entries, Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Arabic (United Arab Emirates) ¹. The iOS and iPadOS list names the same two ². Arabic is one language in those lists, not a separate mode, so the region you pick is the variant the device listens for.

On a Mac, the steps are:

1. Open Keyboard settings and select Dictation.
2. Click Edit next to Languages, then select the Arabic entry you use.
3. Place the insertion point where you want the text, then start Dictation with the Microphone key or the Dictation shortcut.

On an iPhone, add an Arabic keyboard from the keyboard settings and switch to it before you dictate. Then tap the text field and use the dictation key on the keyboard.

Google Docs offers the longest list of Arabic entries

Google's Docs help lists Arabic and 14 regional Arabic entries for voice typing, from Arabic (Algeria) to Arabic (United Arab Emirates) ³. The feature works with the latest versions of Chrome, Edge and Safari ⁴. Use the browser's Tools menu: open a document, select Tools, then Voice typing, and click the microphone in the box that appears.

Two limits matter for Arabic. First, Google's page does not say how to choose the language inside the microphone box, so dictate one test sentence before you rely on it. Second, voice commands work only in English. The page says that the account language and the document language must both be English for voice commands ⁵. For an Arabic document, plan to dictate the text and make edits with the keyboard and mouse.

Because the browser controls the speech-to-text service ⁴, the browser you choose also decides how your speech is processed. Read its privacy settings before you dictate anything sensitive.

Windows 11 voice typing does not offer Arabic

Windows 11 voice typing lists 46 languages and regional variants, from Bulgarian to Vietnamese ⁶. Arabic is not on that list, so you cannot use the built-in voice typing for Arabic on a Windows PC. Our question on Bangla, Urdu and Arabic voice typing on Windows explains the one Arabic option inside Microsoft's own tools, which is a preview group in Word, and its limits.

For dictation on Windows, the practical route is Google Docs in Chrome or Edge, as described above. Our guide to voice typing on Windows covers what the built-in feature does offer, and our question on why voice typing is not available on Windows 11 covers the cases where it does not start at all.

Android depends on the keyboard, and Google does not list Arabic

Google's Gboard help says that talk-to-text does not work with all languages ⁷. The help page does not list which languages those are, so Arabic on Android is something to test, not assume. Open an app where you can type, switch to your Arabic keyboard, and dictate a sentence. If the words come out wrong or nothing appears, that keyboard is not working for Arabic talk-to-text, and you should try another app or device.

Dialect matters more than the menu

A menu entry tells you the country, not the dialect you speak. A 2025 preprint on Arabic speech recognition reports that error rates rise sharply on dialectal and accented speech, and it attributes the gap to linguistic mismatch and scarce labeled data ⁸. A speaker of a dialect has to choose the nearest entry, and the entries are built on Modern Standard Arabic, the formal written form.

Test before you trust a tool. Dictate two or three minutes of the speech you use every day, then count the wrong words. That count tells you more than any list. Our question on whether speech to text understands Arabic dialects covers the measured gaps in more detail.

Mixed Arabic and English needs extra proofreading

Many Arabic speakers switch to English within a sentence, which is called code-switching. When you dictate that mix, check the English words and the punctuation around them first, since those are where errors and display problems cluster. Arabic is written right to left, so numbers and English words can appear in an order you did not speak. Our question on why dictated Arabic looks backwards explains the cause and the fix.

Where to dictate Arabic

What to do next

1. Choose the device or app you type in, and use the table above to see whether it offers Arabic.
2. Pick the regional entry closest to your speech, even if it is not your country.
3. Dictate two or three minutes of normal speech and count the errors.
4. Proofread every number, English word and punctuation mark before you publish.

For the full picture, read our guide to Arabic speech to text and right-to-left dictation. Our overview of dictation languages covers the other languages on each platform. If you prefer to type, our question on learning touch typing in Arabic explains how to practice on the Arabic keyboard, and our question on transcribing Arabic or Hebrew audio covers recordings rather than live speech.