How to Use Dictation on iPad

Master iPad dictation to convert speech to text instantly. Follow this guide to enable, customize, and use voice-to-text across iPadOS applications.

1. Enable the Dictation feature. Open the Settings app and navigate to General. Select Keyboard and toggle the switch for Enable Dictation to the On position. Confirm the prompt if a pop-up appears.
2. Access the microphone input. Open any text-input field in an application like Notes, Mail, or Safari. Tap the microphone icon located in the bottom-right corner of the virtual keyboard or the bottom-right corner of the screen.
3. Speak your text. Begin speaking clearly after the microphone icon pulses. The iPad will transcribe your speech in real-time as you speak.
4. Use punctuation and commands. Speak punctuation marks explicitly, such as comma, period, or question mark, to control sentence structure. You can also say new line or new paragraph to force formatting changes.
5. Terminate the dictation session. Tap the keyboard icon or the microphone icon again to stop recording. Review the transcribed text for accuracy and make manual corrections if necessary.