Dictation and Siri

Robby Walker, Apple’s Senior Director of Siri and Language Tech, came on stage to announce that iOS 16 will now allow users to fluidly move between voice and typing while using Siri’s Dictation feature.

Walker noted that Dictation is used 18 billion times each month, but right now it’s a choice: you either use dictation, or you type.

With iOS 16, the keyboard will stay open when you enable Dictation, letting you combine voice and typed text. It will even be possible to select text using touch and then replace the text with your voice.

Dictation will also now intelligently add punctuation to your text, so there will no longer be a need to speak words like “comma” or “period” while dictating a message or email.

This also works when sending messages with Siri, and you’ll finally be able to dictate emoji characters by speaking their names, such as “smiley face.”

Lastly, Apple is adding a new App Intents API for developers to offer Siri interactions in their apps with zero setup, so new apps will be ready to go with Siri Shortcuts as soon as you install them.