Offline Voice Typing: How to Use Voice to Text Without Internet

How to turn on offline voice typing on Android

Normally your keyboard sends your voice to Google's servers, and the text comes back from there. With no connection, the phone has to do the work on its own, and for that it needs an English speech pack stored on the phone. You download it once, while you're on Wi-Fi.

Gboard

1. Open the Google app and tap your profile picture.
2. Tap "Settings", then "Voice", then "Offline speech recognition".
3. Open the "All" tab, find "English (US)" and tap "Download". If it's already listed under "Installed", you're set.

On a Pixel 6 or newer, Gboard voice typing already runs on the phone itself.

Samsung keyboard

1. Open "Settings", search for "Samsung Keyboard" and open it. The gear on the keyboard toolbar takes you to the same place.
2. Tap "Voice input", then "Samsung voice input".
3. Under "Offline voice input", turn on "English (United States)".
4. Not in the list? Tap "Install offline language pack" and download English.

How to use dictation without internet on iPhone

iPhone turns English speech into text on the phone itself, so there's nothing to download. All you need is dictation switched on.

1. Open "Settings", then "General", then "Keyboard".
2. Turn on "Enable Dictation".
3. Open a note, tap the mic on the keyboard and start talking.

How to check that voice typing works offline

To test it, cut the connection for a minute so only the phone can do the listening.

1. Turn on Airplane mode and turn off Wi-Fi.
2. Open a new note and tap the mic.
3. Say: "Sam I'm running ten minutes late go ahead and start without me."

Text showed up: you're ready. A connection error on Android means the English speech pack isn't on the phone yet. Go back to the Android steps and download it.

Why offline voice to text still needs fixing before you send it

The words are on the screen. Before you hit send, though, you read it over: did the phone actually hear you?

First you check the words. One misheard word changes the whole message, and names are the first to go. A Gboard review on Google Play puts it bluntly:

It changes perfectly logical sentences into gibberish.

Then you fix the punctuation. On most Android phones the marks only appear if you say "comma" and "period" out loud. iPhone adds them for you, but it places them by your pauses, not by your meaning. In the Apple Community one user describes dictation that

inserts random comma punctuations into my sentences even if I did not state for a comma to be inserted.

And you tap the mic again after every pause. Stop to think of a word, and the recording is already over. From Gboard reviews on Google Play:

I have like a half a second before I pause before it shuts off

To type previous sentence I had to press voice typing button four times.

Even when every word is right, the message often lands like this:

That's three rounds of fixing for one short line. All you wanted was to say it once and hit send.

How to dictate a text you can send without fixing it

With Aqua Voice you talk the way you'd leave a voice message, and the text arrives with periods, commas and capitals already in place, the grammar fixed and the "um"s gone. You never say "comma" or "period": Aqua puts each mark where the meaning calls for it, not where you stopped for breath. Here's the same message, said the way people actually talk:

Tap once and talk. Stop to remember what time the meeting was, then carry on: Aqua keeps listening until you tap to finish, and the whole message lands at once. You don't have to hold anything down.

And the words themselves? Accuracy is what people praise most once they switch from their phone's built-in dictation. One App Store review:

works much, much better than the native voice-to-text on my iPhone

Plans changed after you said it? You don't retype a thing. Select the text, tap "Edit" and say what should change.

The same works for anything you've written: "make it shorter" trims a rambling reply, "make this a list" turns a run-on message into bullet points. Add a name to Aqua's dictionary once (your coworker's last name, your street, your dog) and it spells it your way. When you write an email, Aqua formats it like an email.

It writes wherever you type: texts, WhatsApp, email, notes. On iPhone, Aqua is a keyboard you switch to with the globe key. On Android, it's a small button that sits next to the keyboard you already use, so your keyboard stays exactly as it is.

How to get ready-to-send voice typing on iPhone

On iPhone, Aqua Voice is added as one more keyboard. You keep Apple's keyboard for typing and switch to Aqua with the globe key whenever you'd rather talk. You need iOS 17 or newer.

1. Install Aqua Voice from the App Store and open it.
2. Open "Settings", then "General", "Keyboard", "Keyboards" and "Add New Keyboard", and pick Aqua Voice.
3. Tap Aqua Voice in the list, turn on "Allow Full Access", and allow the microphone when Aqua asks.
4. In any text field, tap the globe key to switch to Aqua, tap the mic and talk. When a session starts, Aqua opens its app for a moment to switch on the mic; swipe back to your message and keep going.

How to add ready-to-send voice typing to your Android keyboard

On Android, Aqua Voice doesn't replace your keyboard. It adds a small Aqua button beside it, so Gboard or the Samsung keyboard stays your keyboard, with your layout, swipe typing and autocorrect. You need Android 10 or newer.

1. Install Aqua Voice from Google Play and open it.
2. Sign in and allow the microphone.
3. Turn on Aqua in the accessibility settings the app opens for you: that's how it places your words in the text box.
4. Tap any text box. The Aqua button slides out next to the keyboard: tap it, talk, and tap the checkmark.

Don't need the button right now? Drag it down, and it hides for ten minutes.