I’m going to sound like a curmudgeon but voice dictation on Android seems to have slid backwards. Not in terms of accuracy, but in terms of longer form note taking and dictation. While accuracy has actually increased significantly, voice keyboard seems to have a very narrow endpoint detection that requires re-engaging voice typing whenever there’s a pause.

This seems logical. Most people don’t write long emails, especially from their phones. They’re writing short texts and maybe using Google Assistant but there’s definitely a strong application for writing a two-paragraph response, especially while needing to be handsfree and eyes free.

As is now, voice dictation on Gmail or in Android is still very distracting to do. There’s not clear endpoint indicator so it’s possible to talk for some time without realizing that the transcription has stopped.

Here’s an opportunity for a competitor to take advantage of this drawback.