Review: Dragon Dictation -- iPhone voice transcription by Dragon NaturallySpeaking

With over 100,000 apps available for the iPhone, there are a lot of great apps out there.  Every once in a while, an app comes along that really impresses me and stands out from the rest.  Yesterday, Nuance released one such app, a version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the iPhone called Dragon Dictation.  Simply dictate a message to your iPhone and, almost instantly, your voice is transcribed with amazing accuracy.  With one tap you can send the transcription to an e-mail.  You can dictate a message to your iPhone a heck of a lot faster than you can tap a message on the iPhone keyboard, even if you are a good iPhone typist, so with Dragon Dictation you can save a lot of time writing messages or other text.  And for a limited time, this amazing app is free.  All I can say is, wow.

Well actually, you know I can't help but say a lot more than that one word, so let's get to it.  To use the app, simply start it up and tap the red button in the middle of the screen.  Then speak your message.  You can also say punctuation marks such as "comma", "period", "question mark", "exclamation mark" etc.  To start a new paragraph just say "new paragraph".  

[UPDATE 12/10/09:  Joet of Just Another iPhone Blog has posted a bunch of dictation tips, including instructions on telling the app to capitalize a word (just say "cap" before the word) or to even turn on and off all caps, and including tips on dictating punctuation and symbols.]

You can go for about 20 seconds at a time, and then the app will stop recording and show you what it has so far.  Or, you can stop or pause yourself by tapping the Done button.  Your speech is quickly translated and then you will see the text on your screen.  If you want to add more text, just tap the red recording button again to add to your message.

    

In my tests, the accuracy of the transcription has been excellent.  The app even adapts to your voice over time to improve accuracy, and thus Nuance recommends that you avoid letting other people use the Dragon Dictation app on your iPhone.  If this matters to you, note that the app resists translating curse words — an issue of no consequence to me except that I love that it resulted in this amusing post by Andy Ihnatko. 

Of course, like all voice-to-text systems, the transcription is it not 100% perfect.  Fortunately, there are three easy ways to correct transcription errors.  First, you can tap on a word that you want to correct, and a drop-down list will pop up with alternative suggestions.  You can also correct an entire phrase by dragging your finger to highlight a few words. 

    

Second, once you have selected the incorrect word, you can tap the red button and record it again.  Third, you can tap the keyboard button at the bottom left and manually correct the error by typing it correctly.  When you are using the keyboard, you place the cursor in the correct location by double-tapping in a spot.

  

When you are done with your message, it is very simple to export it, especially if you want to move the text to an e-mail.  Just tap the arrow icon at the bottom right of the screen and select "Send to Mail" in the menu that comes up.  Within the app itself, an e-mail panel opens with your message included.  Address your e-mail, add a subject and click send, and you are done.

    

Another option is to "Send to Clipboard."  This option copies the text so that, within any other app, you can paste the text.  For example, you might want to open the Facebook app, a Twitter client, or a word processor such as Documents to Go or Quickoffice and paste the text there.  A final option is "Send to Txt Msg" which copies the text to the clipboard and opens up the Messages app.  You need to start a new message manually and then paste the text into your text message.

Nuance posted this short video to YouTube that shows the app in action:

Any time a lawyer has someone else write down the lawyer's words, security is an issue to consider.  Note that the transcription does not happen within this app itself.  Instead, the app sends your voice to a server operated by Nuance, the transcription happens on that server, and then the text is sent back to your iPhone.  And that is not all that is sent to Nuance; the app also sends a list of the names in your iPhone's Contacts (but nothing but the names) so that you can say the name of a person who you know and Dragon can do a good job of figuring out the text.  For example, I was amazed when this app correctly transcribed "Ernest Svenson" on the first try until I realized that Dragon already knew about that name from my Contacts list.  Ben Patterson of Yahoo! Tech asked Nuance about security and received this response from the developer of Dragon Dictation:

Search queries and dictation requests are transcribed by fully automated speech recognition software, without the use of humans.  Data is uploaded and collected in order to improve performance for individual users, and to improve the general performance of the system.

All speech recognition requests and associated data are processed in data centers in the U.S. that meet stringent security and privacy standards; these are the same standards that we use for processing private information in other areas of our business.

The Dragon Dictation application does upload a user’s contact names only (no phone numbers, email addresses, etc.), and the data is used only for optimizing name recognition when a user dictates.  It maintains its integrity and security.

Speaking more about the app's use of your Contacts list, Michael Thompson, Senior Vice President & General Manager with Nuance Mobile (the guy in the above video), writes:

As you may have experienced already, Dragon Dictation for the iPhone goes through your contact list on your iPhone and uploads the names to our server. We do this for a pretty simple reason: we found that people are often dictating names from their address book and expect the names to be recognized. We take this information and create an anonymous user profile for your device that understands what names are likely to dictate into a document. It's important to note that we only upload the names, not the e-mail addresses, phone numbers or any other personally identifying information from your contacts.

Even though there is no personally identifying information, we still treat all of this information with the highest privacy standards. All of our servers are located in the United States and meet the most stringent privacy and security standards. We conform to these high standards because we use the same data centers for other areas of our business where we are required to store personal information.

[UPDATE 12/10/09:  Dragon announced today that it is working on an update to the app that will allow you to turn off the feature of uploading the names of your contacts to Nuance.  Thus, if this is a privacy concern for you, there should be a solution soon.]  [UPDATE #2 12/10/09:  As David Pogue of the New York Times points out, it is a little strange for people to be so worried about Nuance getting your list of contacts when so many other companies have so much more information about you already.]  [UPDATE 2/16/09:  Version 1.1 of the app is now available, which allows you to choose to not upload Contacts data and to delete any previously uploaded Contacts data from the Nuance server.]

Because the app talks to a Nuance server to do its magic, you need to have a network connection to use the app.  On WiFi, I find that transcription is almost instantaneous.  Even on 3G, it only takes a few seconds to work.  I haven't tried the app on a slower Edge connection.

As amazing as this app is, it is just the beginning.  Nuance VP Michael Thompson wrote that the company has "a bunch more applications, languages and features planned."  For example, one missing feature is the ability to tell the app to capitalize a word.  [See above tip for capitalization.]  Also, the app doesn't include a legal or medical dictionary, and I would not be surprised to see this as a future add-on that can be purchased (or a future, separate version of the app).

Nuance is also planning to a launch another app called Dragon Search.  They already have a web page set up and the app is in testing now.  Dragon Search will allow you to speak your search terms and get simultaneous results from websites such as Google (or Yahoo or Bing), YouTube, Twitter, iTunes and Wikipedia.  Google has long offered its free Google Mobile app that allows you to speak your search terms, so presumably the hook for Dragon Search will be the simultaneous results from multiple sites, not just Google.

Dragon Dictate is not the first iPhone app to handle dictation.  For example, Voxie Pro Recorder can record and transcribe text.  The app itself costs only $1.99, but you have to pay extra for transcription services, which are done by real people.  This is great for accuracy, and they even offer Legal and Medical transcription, but you pay by the word and the cost can get expensive as you can see in these service plans.  Another option is QuickVoice2Text Email which costs only $0.99, but it takes about ten minutes to transcribe your voice.  What Dragon has going for it is the years of experience of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the premier speech to text engine on the PC and Mac, and the speed and low price of automated transcription by a computer.

As noted above, for a limited time, the Dragon Dictation app is free.  Nuance has not announced what the price will be when this limited time offer ends.  I strongly encourage you to run, do not walk, to your nearest App Store and download this app right now, while it is free.  I guarantee that the time will come when you will find this app handy to have. 

Click here to get Dragon Dictate (free for a limited time): 

Comments

[Gordon C Greene]

I cant agree more. I was a 97 lb. typing weakling clutz and even worse at texting. Now I am benching 350 lbs of words per min and have been transformed. This is the best app I have. YAHOO

[Gordon C Greene]

I meant to add that running to download the app is mandatory. Even if it is running over glass or hot coals!

[Cliff Maier]

I've found the accuracy to be nothing short of abysmal (which is why it didn't live long on my iPhone). Despite being born in Brooklyn, decades of living in regions with more anchorman-esque accents have essentially eliminated my accent, nonetheless this app generally made at least one major mistake per sentence, sometimes combining entire phrases into a single, incorrect, word.

Cliff's rating: Yuck.

[YesExhibit]

Thanks for posting the "WHY" Dragon Dictation uses your contacts. I quickly downloaded this last night before reading the EULA ... then I was like Awk!!! No!!!
So we'll see if DD was telling the as the Truth will surface eventually, as Geeks always prove to unmask Tech-Stink if it smells like ...

[Martha S]

How do you feel about the EULA issue with respect to lawyers using this application on their business phones? Many of the comments on the Dragon site in response to Dragon's explanation show users are not satisfied about the privacy issue. Do you think the privacy concern is outweighed by the utility of this free application? Do you have any suggested limitations to be employed by lawyers using this app?

Martha

[Jeff responds: Each lawyer will have to decide whether this is an issue for them. For me, I don't see a security concern having first and last names, and nothing else, uploaded to a Nuance server to a file that is associated with user number that corresponds to my iPhone. As noted in the update above, Nuance is planning to let you opt out of this feature if you want to do so.]

[Paul C. Easton]

I found Dragon Dictation on the iPhone to be quite accurate. It is not, however, a true dictation tool. It will transcribe short bits of text (about a paragraph at a time works best), but you can't spell out words, specify capitalization or punctuation, etc. That limits its use for creating e-mail and Word processing.

A bigger issue, for me, with transcription/dictation on my phone is that those times when I would want to use it, there is either too much background noise or it would be rude to do so.

In short, this is an impressive piece of technology, but of limited use.

[Matt]

I cannot understand why it doesn’t run on a (microphone-equipped) iPod touch. As soon as it does, I’ll probably become a heavy user, but for now I must wait …

[Jeff responds: The Nuance website says on the Dragon Mobile Apps blog: "We are working on Dragon Dictation for iPod Touch; we will provide update on availability soon."]

[Rory Sinclair]

Argh! Why is it not in the UK store?!

[Jeff responds: Nuance says on its website that it is developing regional roll out plans. Hopefully you will have it soon!]

[Roger Little]

I use an I touch. The app says that it is not compatible. I was wondering why it could not be? It is possible to use an external microphone for voice recording..... If anyone has information about this, I would appriciate it.

[DBSA]

It's not available in Australia either. I suspect it's not available outside the US.

[Mark H. Delfs]

I found that the Dragon dictation software for the iPhone is amazing. I'm actually using this software to transcribe this post right now. I'm not gonna make any corrections or changes to the article. I have found if you talk slowly and clearly into the bottom of the iPhone it works a lot better. A lot of the tips that I have read on this blog post are great tips to help the recognition a lot better. Again, if you speak slowly and clearly it should pick up your voice pretty well most of the time. I would grab this application as fast as possible if I were you because it's probably not gonna be free forever. It's great technology and I'm sure it's gonna find its way into more applications on the iPhone. Again I have spoken this entire comment. I have not read type any of it and so far it seems to be picking up most of my comments perfectly. By using the iPhone keyboard, this post would've taken me probably 15 minutes. By speaking it. I can do it in probably about 30 seconds. Keep your eyes on this company because they're gonna go far in the world of the iPhone applications.

[Ernie Svenson]

Following Jeff's excellent presentation last Wednesday at the Digital Workflow seminar in New Orleans, I again tried this app. It's truly amazing and I've been using it for most of my routine text messages because the accuracy is so good, and it saves me time. (I can't type quickly and my eyes need glasses to see). Great app! Especially when you consider it's free. Clearly Nuance is paving the way for greater things.

[nanette feliciano]

got all excited when i learned of this app, only to find out i can't get it--yet. sigh. from the comments i see that it's not yet available internationally. any news on when this will happen? i live in the philippines where we do a whole lot of texting, and i'd love to know when this app will come our way. thanks!

[Person1242]

There is only 1 problem with this application..
It does not have an auto save or something. Everytime you turn off the app, your message is erased. Everyone knows that the iPhone can sometimes be unreliable and turn off apps. So what happens when you are dictating paragraphs of information and it suddenly quits on you?

[Jeff responds: I understand your point, but I don't think that this app is designed for that. The idea is that you dictate a few sentences, then quickly send those sentences to an e-mail, text message, or the clipboard to be pasted somewhere else. I could definitely see another company use Dragon technology to capture longer blocks of text, in which case there would need to be an autosave function. But since the point of this app is to quickly get in and get out without working with a huge amount of text, I don't see this as a major problem for now. Good observation, though.]

[CushmasterRick]

Nanette, I discovered that if you press the Sleep button on your device your text will still be there the next time you turn it on. But as pointed out ,if you hit Home button before saving, it's gone. Also, both apps are now compatible with the iTouch (as of 11 January, 2010).

I'm amazed that you get so much for free. I plan to prepare a short article using the DD app, exclusively. Takes some planning though. Enunciation is the difference between so-so and spectacular. Can't wait for the medical and legal add-ons.

[tom hahn]

This is probably the most amazing technology I have experienced in the last ten years. I took my master's many years ago in AI, and I can tell you that some of the problems they have solved -- like handling homonyms correctly -- are difficult to the point that I sometimes wonder if this app was teleported from the future. I agree that the secret is to tilt the phone slightly away from you so that the mic is more or less pointed at you, and is about 4-6 inches away. Speak slowly and very distinctly. Over-emphasize your enunciation, i.e. move your lips in an exaggerated way. Don't leave gaps between words.

I pray that Apple buys this company. There should be a red record button within the standard iphone virtual keyboard so that you can speak anytime you could type, and easily go back and forth.

[Erich K. Brown]

I use DT to copy and paste into iTranslate for translation into various foreign languages. Works great!

[MUCKER]

WTF COME ON ITS BEEN 2 MONTHS STILL NOT IN UK APP STORE !!!!!!

[Carmine]

I would pay extra to be able to continue dictation without pausing every twenty seconds. Also I have lost many messages without the auto save option.

Good start! Keep up the progress.

[Max]

Requirements listed on the iTunes store page says nothing about you being required to be located in the US....and yet it is not available to those outside of the US. I why they don't deem that a requirement worth listing?

[Paul]

Why does it even bother copying the Contacts names if it doesn't have the capability of sending a text msg to a Contact by the user saying that contact's name? I still have to paste it into a text message. What good is it if you still have to look down and type anyway? Doesn't help while driving. Am I missing something here? Can't we just say the contact's name after creating the message so the app can send the meg to the contact?

[Jeff responds: The reason that it copies your Contacts names is so that it knows to recognize those names if you say them. Look at the part of the above post where I talk about how Dragon understood "Svenson" when I said it. Having said that, what you describe would be a nice feature to add.]

[egauthier@yahoo.com]

I just started using this and am very impressed.

One huge problem though, I am getting frequent "Server Error" and I lose whatever was dictated. I know server errors or overloading happens. How about a retry button so I don't lose what I just dictated?

[Steve Bird]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE when is this app coming to the UK?

[Alan]

desperate for this for the UK

[Fucker]

still not avilable in the U,K looks like will take a year
come on WTF

[Odie in Texas]

It would be awesome if you could add words (see the post from Brooklyn, above) to a personal dictionary... I have an unusual first name, and when my wife dictates my name it comes out "Booty". Hmmmm, maybe I can live with that!?

[Grace Garabedian]

I am a hearing impaired senior citizen and have difficulty understanding speech when someone talks to me. Would this device help if I carried it with me and had person talk into it and then I can read it and not feel I am isolated?
Is there a monthly fee after you buy this device?

[Jeff responds: There is no monthly fee for this software. It might be a little cumbersome to hand your iPhone to someone, have them talk for 20 seconds or so, then see the words, then let them speak another 20 seconds, see more words, etc. Strictly speaking I suppose this would work, but I'm not sure how satisfying of a solution it would be.]

[Julian in California]

This app is not bad - if you speak clearly then the accuracy is quite good for short passages of simple obvious words but I found the editing process after dictation cumbersome. If you click on a word the app got wrong then it offers a drop down list of alternative words but if one of those is not the one you want then you have to click a special key to bring up the iPhone keyboard. For some reason as soon as you do this the app loses the highlighting on the word you want to change and you have to reselect it. Why? Also when in keyboard mode the suggestion of alternative words no longer works. These conflicting modes makes no sense to me.

Supposedly the app learns to understand your voice better over time but it's not clear to me when you make corrections using the keyboard whether it associates your typed words with the ones you spoke (this might not be a good idea if you decide what you said wasn't quite what you wanted). This also points to another more general problem with dictation software like this. When I write something I often like to make a lot of changes as I go along. Dictating perfect prose is quite hard so for me this makes it essential to have a really easy to use editing interface. There's no way even to tell the app "scrub that last sentence" or whatever. So if you want to write an essay or even just a short letter this app is pretty limited.

[pamtidteach]

I love this app!!! The only thing that would make it better is to be able to speak the name of the person I want to text rather than have to type it or choose it. It would really make texting hands free...that is what I am looking for!! What it does, it does well.

[cruising mimi]

I just installed Dragon Dictation app on my iphone 3GS. DD works great when I email iphone to iphone. But, I used Dragon Dictation to send an email to my husband, and when he tried to view on his PC the email appeared empty. He tried to print and it immediately showed my message in print preview. Is there a setting to enable on his PC or does the DD app work only for phone communication!

[Jeff responds: That is odd. I've never seen or heard about this sort of problem before. It doesn't do that for me.]

[CHCH]

How do you send an email without starting a new thread? Do you have to copy and paste all the time?

[Jeff responds: That is correct. Dragon Dictation lets you create a new thread, or you can copy and paste the text to switch to the Mail and and respond to another thread. Obviously it is much more convenient to have speech recognition built-in to the Mail app, much like we now have with Siri if you are using an iPhone 4S. But for older models, and for the iPad, Dragon Dictation is currently the next best thing.]

[Sandy Mitchell]

I've been wanting something like this for SOOO long...my buddy got a new 4G and sent me his old 3G iphone, bless his heart...I downloaded DD and have been playing with it. It appears to let me dictate for almost a minute before it cuts out, so I guess they've gone beyond the original 20 seconds. I plan to use DD when I'm hiking on Mt. Shasta, but as I refuse to pay for ATT's lousy phone service, I haven't activated the phone part of the iPhone. So when I'm up in the wilderness I won't be able to email my text to myself, and I'm wondering if there's any way to save it on the phone until I get back to a wifi spot...

[Sandy Mitchell]

Hmmm...further reading seems to indicate that I won't be able to dictate when I'm out on the mountain, out of wifi range...unless: is there a way that DD will store my words in a buffer for later retrieval?

[Jeff responds: No. It requires Internet access.]