tl;dr
Open Settings, tap General, then Keyboard, and turn on Enable Dictation. Tap the microphone key on the system keyboard and speak. Apple's dictation types close to what you said, so the filler and the false starts stay in. Add an AI keyboard such as Auri Keyboard when you want the draft cleaned up, translated, or written as a reply.
Turn on Apple Dictation
The microphone key does not appear until Dictation is enabled, which catches out a lot of people on a new phone or after a restore. Setup takes about half a minute and needs no restart.
- Open Settings > General > Keyboard.
- Turn on Enable Dictation and confirm the prompt.
- Open Notes, tap into a note, and bring up the keyboard.
- Tap the microphone key near the space bar and say one sentence.
- Tap the key again to stop, or pause and let it end itself.
Dictation follows the language of the keyboard you are using. If you have several layouts installed, switch the keyboard first, then start speaking.
Speak so the transcript needs less fixing
Most messy transcripts come from delivery rather than the recognizer. Short bursts at a normal speaking pace come back cleaner than a two-minute run, because you catch a mistake while you still remember the sentence you meant.
- Say punctuation out loud: “period”, “comma”, “question mark”, “new line”.
- Stop after two or three sentences, glance at the text, then start again.
- Slow down for names, email addresses, and numbers, or type those by hand.
- In a noisy room, bring the phone closer instead of raising your voice.
For the first week, reread each dictated message before sending. You will end up with a short list of words your voice loses, and most of them are names.
What the system mic will not do
Apple's dictation is close to literal. It writes the “um”, the repeated word, and the sentence you abandoned halfway through. On a two-line text that costs you nothing. On a long email it means you dictate once and then rewrite by hand.
- Filler words and false starts stay in the draft.
- Tone lands exactly as you said it, including the parts you would not have written.
- No translation, no rewrite, no reply drafted from a short instruction.
- Lists, line breaks, and paragraph structure are your job.
A newer group of apps, Auri and Wispr Flow among them, adds a cleanup step after the words land so the first draft is closer to sendable. If you retype the same paragraph twice a day, that is the gap worth closing.
Add an AI keyboard for the second pass
An AI keyboard takes over the keyboard area while you type, so voice input and the editing tools live in the same place. iOS asks for three different things during setup, and each one controls something separate.
- Install the keyboard app from the App Store.
- Open Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard and pick it. This only puts it in the globe-key list.
- Tap the keyboard's row and turn on Allow Full Access, which is what iOS requires before a keyboard can reach the network.
- Allow microphone access the first time you tap the keyboard's mic.
- Hold the globe key in any app to switch to it.
Auri Keyboard covers voice typing, grammar and spelling fixes, 25+ paraphrase styles, translation across 20+ languages, email replies, clipboard snippets, and more than 80 keyboard languages. On iPhone, voice typing offers selectable cloud transcription engines by default, or On-Device English-only transcription. The same iOS app also includes AI Chat and Smart Notes for work that belongs outside the keyboard.
Decide which keyboard owns which job
Two keyboards only help if you stop deciding between them mid-message. Set the split once and let habit carry it.
- System keyboard with Apple Dictation: one-line texts, search fields, anything you would send unedited.
- AI keyboard: email, longer replies, messages in a second language, anything a client or colleague reads.
- Either one: rough notes you plan to finish later on a bigger screen.
Part of the split is enforced for you. iOS switches back to the system keyboard inside password, PIN, and card fields, so those never reach a third-party keyboard.
Fix the problems people hit most
Five failures cover almost every support question about iPhone voice typing, and each one has a settings answer rather than a reinstall.
- No microphone key. Dictation is off, or you are in a secure field.
- Mic starts and quits. Something else holds the microphone. End the call, recording, or camera session first.
- AI buttons do nothing. Full Access is off, or the connection is dead.
- Keyboard vanished from the globe list. Re-add it under Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards, which happens after some iOS updates.
- Wrong language in the transcript. Dictation follows the active keyboard, so change the layout before you speak.
When typing works and only the AI tools fail, check Full Access before you touch anything else.
FAQ
Where is the microphone key on the iPhone keyboard?
On the system keyboard it sits near the space bar. If you cannot see it, Dictation is still off in Settings, or you are typing in a password or card field where iOS hides third-party input and some dictation controls.
Does iPhone dictation stop on its own?
Yes. It ends after a stretch of silence, and it also stops when you tap the mic key again or start typing. Two or three sentences per burst works better than one long monologue.
Do I need an AI keyboard for basic voice typing?
No. Apple Dictation handles quick notes and short replies at no cost. The reason to add a keyboard is the step after speech: grammar, tone, translation, or a reply drafted from a one-line instruction.
Why does iOS ask for Full Access?
iOS blocks custom keyboards from the network until you allow Full Access, and most AI features need the network. Decline it and the keyboard still types; the AI buttons stay dark.
Can a custom keyboard see my passwords?
No. iOS swaps in the system keyboard inside password, PIN, and card fields, so a custom keyboard never receives those keystrokes. Auri does not capture those fields.