Other
TipBITS: How Fake Contacts Can Fix Dictation's Proper Noun Problems
Adam Engst, TidBITS, 2026
Read the originalRead on October 17, 2026
- What it is
- A TidBITS tip, published 15 May 2026, in which Adam Engst describes adding names and phrases to the Contacts app to change how Apple's Dictation on iPhone spells and capitalizes them, and which problems the method did and did not fix.
- How much weight it carries
- Written by an experienced Apple writer for a long-running publication, but it reports one author's own testing with no controlled measurements. Use it for the method and the limits the author reports, not for how often the method works for you.
Facts taken from this source
- In one test, after the author created a contact for the phrase FLRC Challenge, Dictation capitalized the word Challenge correctly every time.
“Now that I’ve created a contact for “FLRC Challenge,” Dictation capitalizes “Challenge” correctly every time.” (Section: Add Custom Words to Contacts)
- TidBITS reports that Dictation often prefers a name in Contacts to a common word that sounds the same, which can produce the wrong word.
“Dictation often prefers names in Contacts to common words that sound the same.” (Section: Contact conflicts)
- TidBITS describes entering each custom name or phrase in the First Name field of a Contacts entry, however many words it contains.
“I put them all in the First Name field” (Section: Add Custom Words to Contacts)
- After the TidBITS author corrected a hard name in several test sentences, Dictation improved its recognition of that name.
“After correcting mistakes in a variety of sentences, Dictation improved.” (Section: Add Custom Words to Contacts)
- TidBITS says Apple does not provide a user-editable list where you can add special words for Dictation, and describes Contacts as a back-door way to train it.
“Apple doesn’t provide a user-editable list where you can add special words” (Section: Contact conflicts (the paragraph before the Contacts workaround))
- TidBITS reports that Dictation picked up some Contacts entries quickly, but that other entries needed more training before it recognized them.
“Dictation picks up some of these entries quickly, such that you don’t have to do anything more. However, in other cases, it requires more training.” (Section: Add Custom Words to Contacts)