Where is voice typing in Google Docs?

On a computer, voice typing is in the Tools menu of Google Docs. Open a document in Chrome, Edge or Safari, choose Tools, then Voice typing, and click the microphone. Google's steps begin with a document open in a supported browser ¹, so the browser you use decides whether the menu item appears.

The menu is under Tools, then Voice typing

Follow these steps on a computer:

1. Open a document in Google Docs in the latest versions of Chrome, Edge or Safari ².
2. Click Tools, then click Voice typing. A microphone box appears ¹.
3. Click the microphone and speak. Click it again to stop.

The first time you use it, Chrome may ask for microphone access. It offers Allow while visiting the site, Allow this time and Never allow ³. Choose an Allow option. If you choose Never allow, the site cannot use the microphone until you change that setting in Chrome.

Firefox is not on Google's browser list

Google's current list names three browsers and does not include Firefox ². Google's December 2020 help page said the feature was "only available in Chrome browsers" ⁴. The list below compares the two copies.

If you use Firefox, switch to Chrome, Edge or Safari before you look for the menu. The browser also decides the speech service: Google says that when you turn on voice typing, your web browser controls the speech-to-text service ².

The keyboard shortcut is labeled for Chrome

Google's keyboard shortcut list gives Ctrl + Shift + S on Windows and Command + Shift + S on a Mac to start voice typing ⁵. The same list labels the shortcut as available in Chrome browsers, which is narrower than the three-browser list. If the shortcut does nothing in Edge or Safari, use the Tools menu instead. That menu is the route Google's steps describe for any supported browser ¹.

On a phone, the Tools menu is not the route

Google's steps begin on a computer, and we did not find a Google help page that describes a Voice typing menu in the Docs phone apps. The 2020 help page says you can type and edit by speaking in Google Docs or in Google Slides speaker notes ⁶, and the steps we could read describe a computer only. On Android, the Gboard keyboard has a microphone at the top of the keyboard, which you tap before you speak ⁷. That is Gboard's feature, not Docs', so check it in the phone steps covered in our question on voice typing on a phone.

If the menu is missing, check the browser and the microphone

A missing menu can have one of two causes: the browser is not on Google's list, or the microphone is blocked. Check the browser first, because nothing else helps if it is unsupported. Then check Chrome's microphone choice, which is covered in the question on why voice typing is not working. Google's help pages we could read do not describe a separate setting that hides the menu, so a missing menu on a supported browser is worth a restart of the browser and a check of its microphone permission.

Test the feature before a long session

Open a blank document, start voice typing from Tools, and speak two or three sentences in a quiet room. Read back what appeared, then click the microphone again to stop. If the words are poor, change the microphone or the room before you change anything else. Distance affects accuracy. Figures from Ravanelli et al. (2017) put a distant microphone's word error rate at about 3.2 times the close-talk rate ⁸. The speech and rooms in those figures differ, so treat that as a rough ratio. A headset close to your mouth is the simplest fix. The guide to Google Docs voice typing covers the evidence in full.

What to do

1. Use Chrome, Edge or Safari on a computer, not Firefox.
2. Open the document, then choose Tools, then Voice typing.
3. Click the microphone, and choose an Allow option if Chrome asks.
4. If the menu is still missing, try the shortcut in Chrome, or restart the browser.
5. For dictation outside Docs, such as email or web forms, use a tool that works across apps, covered in our overview of dictating into any app. For background on the term, see the glossary entry for voice typing.

For the rest of the feature, read our punctuation question and our commands question.