The human voice is the easiest way of communication. The first people had nothing but this natural tool to talk to others. Then, humanity learned to write, take down notes, and send letters. With the emergence of the printing press, things got much easier. Then appeared typewriters, computers, and laptops – and many adults almost forgot how to write manually. In the 21st century, the circle of progress has turned back to the initial point, but on a new level. Today’s technology has made it possible for us to “talk” to machines and devices.
In this piece, we’ll touch upon the current voice technology trends and find out what speech-to-text apps are the best right now.
Current voice technology trends
Since voicing thoughts and commands is extremely convenient, engineers have been working on this technology and have already achieved wonderful results. Numerous apps and devices have VUIs, and the number of people preferring this way of interaction is growing each year. According to Insider Intelligence, 42.1% of the United States population resorted to voice assistants in 2022. By 2026, more than half of Internet users will benefit from these helpful tools.
Statista’s experts assessed the use of voice-powered searches and found that asking for weather forecasts tops them all. But it’s clear that more and more people are seeking information about various types of services and are ready to order them. That’s why businesses across the globe try to implement search assistants in their shopping venues. This is a prerequisite for success nowadays.
If the trend lingers, this way of interaction will gradually replace conventional texting and typing in many interfaces. The technology is especially popular among young people who are flexible and open to mobile innovations.
Let’s see what’s to come in this sector in 2023.
Consistent experience across devices
As more and more customers use voice-to-text apps to interact with businesses, they need a seamless experience and synchronization of commands on all their devices. This means, all apps they use must have the same or very similar functionality, which takes convenience to the next level. Clarity and simplicity are also critical, meaning short inquiries and quick responses. As voice technology keeps on evolving, interaction will become much more sophisticated, intelligent, and entertaining. Databases of typical requests and answers grow, so, machines will guess what users are about to ask with stunning accuracy. What’s more, people will be able to merge multiple requests into one, like “Search for the best vegetable offers in the local grocery store, order some tomatoes for dinner, and set up delivery at 5 o’clock”.
Voice priority for AR and VR technologies
Our bodies and senses are the primary ways of interacting with the world. It’s all in our nature: as children, we first experience things by touch, smell, and sound, and as we get older, we learn how to operate mechanisms. So, we should use this principle in digital reality as well, in particular, for AR and VR activities. Currently, controlling in VR requires certain skills because handling the joystick in this simulated space is not an easy task for many people. You might feel clumsy, which affects the overall perception of the simulated environment. It’s much more convenient to speak out commands or questions.
This opens gigantic perspectives not only for entertainment but for business and everyday tasks. Imagine looking for the perfect color for the walls in your living room using AR. Instead of typing in the query, you simply ask, “Show me what it looks like in beige/blue/chocolate”. And you get the answer right away.
Enhanced audio experience
Using voice technology to enhance audio experiences (streaming music, listening to podcasts, etc.) looks symbolic as it’s all about sound. Now, listening to your favorite albums on Spotify will be even more convenient. You won’t need to turn to your screen to type in an artist’s name when changing tracks. Just mention who you’d like to listen to – and enjoy the music you love. If you wish to see karaoke-like texts on screen, go ahead.
The same goes for the news sector. You may ask your mobile device to read the news (such an option is already available, but still with a button click). Interactive ads will make the entire experience even more enjoyable.
Comfortable purchasing
Using cutting-edge technologies for shopping is very convenient per se, but every so often you need to read some information about a product first. When buying something unknown, you should see the specs, read user feedback, etc. But with the products and goods you consume daily, voice technology is pure joy. Thus, an app of an online store has already learned what bread, milk, or mineral water you prefer. So, you can simply say, “Order two bottles of mineral water”, and it will place the one you need in the basket, without searching through many options. If you want to try something new, you can simply add this detail when voicing your command.
More restaurants and bars will find speech-to-text apps useful and order robust software solutions from mobile app companies. There is a significant shortage of labor force in this sector, so it’s easier to delegate such tasks as order processing to machines. Customers will also find this convenient and easy to use. Popular food delivery services that keep up with the latest trends in IT will also introduce this functionality in their mobile services.
Democratic voice technology stack
In 2023, low-power edge voice recognition will be essential. This technology will be embedded into the primary system on a chip (SoC) of audio devices, eliminating the need for an extra chip and cutting expenses. Furthermore, we expect NLU to become more sophisticated and tailored to specific industries. It is likely to become a go-to solution for such activities as performing transactions online, buying food, and listening to music. As a result, businesses will find it more affordable and convenient to rent specialized stacks rather than building them from scratch.
Now, that we’ve covered the most predictable outcomes of the evolution in this area, let’s talk about the best speech-to-text apps available in 2023.
Choosing the right voice-to-text app
In 2023, the variety of speech-to-text apps is impressive, and their number will definitely grow as more businesses follow the latest trends and introduce voice commands into their services. We have studied reliable sources and selected the most popular options, both free and paid.
The best speech-to-text apps you can use free of charge
If you can use robust high-performance mobile software for free, why not choose this option? People tend to try a free version first to decide if they need a certain type of solution. So, let’s talk about the most popular apps in this segment.
Google Assistant
Google products are among the best-loved all over the globe. The tech giant closely follows the latest voice technology trends and constantly improves its software. Google Assistant is an impressive invention that has already attracted legions of admirers across continents.
Just say “Hey Google” or “Ok Google” – and you’ll wake your mobile phone for further action. Precise search, simple commands, accurate translations, and even integration with your favorite software – the capacities of this assistant are striking. If you haven’t yet used it, try it out. It will make your everyday interaction with your phone or tablet much more exciting and convenient.
Google Gboard
This speech-to-text option is indispensable for Android users. Although the primary feature of Google Gboard is physical text input, it also has powerful voice capacities. All its basic search functions work perfectly on mobile devices. With this app, you can find information, including images. Solid multilanguage support (over sixty languages as of now) and compatibility with Google Translate make it a perfect tool for those who are eager to discover the benefits of voicing.
The keyboard runs on the software installed on the mobile device and is ad-free. A perfect choice, isn’t it?
Apple Dictation
iOS users find Apple Dictation extremely helpful and exciting. This speech-to-text tool runs on most software using keyboard capacities, and you don’t even need an Internet connection to drive it. If the app has difficulty understanding your speech, it will simply highlight the word under doubt. You can make the necessary corrections all the way.
Dictation offers quite vast opportunities for editing the text you have entered. It works with many languages, so you can choose the one you need easily.
The best voice-to-text apps available as both free and paid solutions
Like other software types, some of the speech-to-text apps follow the principle “if you want to have more, pay for our services”. It’s really convenient as the basic set of features is available, and if you want a premium experience, you may choose a convenient subscription plan.
Notta
Notta is one more option that you can try out free of charge. If you want to unlock more useful features of this voice-to-text app, you can opt for a Pro plan. This state-of-the-art software has a robust mechanism of protection and secures your private data from third parties. One of its impressive functions is the ability of audio/video call transcription.
This speech-to-text platform works like a library, systematizing your transcripts and notes. You can edit resulting texts, add images, and experiment with text formats. One more important feature to mention is perfect synchronization across your devices. So, you don’t need to copy files manually, everything is at hand, and everything is available.
Otter
This is one of the best voice-to-text apps for enterprises and SMEs since it shows impressive organizational capacities. Otter is a cloud-based, feature-rich, versatile, and easy-to-use AI-powered tool. You can pick it for educational purposes (“writing down” lectures), during interviews and presentations, and more. The developers have implemented an excellent feature: the product has various speakers to choose from, which facilitates the process of transcription.
If you want to go beyond the basic functionality, you’ll get up to 1,200 minutes of transcription, user management features, 2FA, statistics, and more.
The best speech-to-text apps you can get for a fee
You can easily do without paying for voice-to-text apps as the solutions we have mentioned above are reliable, stable, and pleasant to use. But who knows, maybe you are missing the very features that the following speech-to-text apps have under their hood.
Dragon
Professionals rank this solution as one of the best voice-to-text apps. No wonder: Dragon’s accuracy is fabulous, and synchronization capacities are great. Yes, it’s quite expensive ($15 monthly) but you get limitless dictation. Writers, journalists, or managers can profit from this. An author can dictate an entire novel if they want to try a new writing experience. The app has a built-in vocabulary, so you can add neologisms or jargon words if Dragon cannot recognize something on the first try. Constant upgrades, immense editing and formatting options, powerful customization, cloud synchronization, and enhanced protection – do you need more arguments in favor of this remarkable app?
Verbit
This speech-to-text solution is available on the custom pricing model, which is really convenient. Pay for what you need – isn’t it good? Thousands of businesses trust Verbit because of its rich collection of tools, impressive transcription capabilities, and impeccable accuracy. Its creators considered people with visual impairments when developing this platform. So, audio description is available to those who have problems reading texts. Translations are also easy with this product.
People using voice-to-text apps know the issue of inaccurate accent interpretation. It may be a nuisance when entering information in foreign languages. Verbit engineers have taken the problem into account, and the app is superb in this regard.
This solution is ideal for corporate use. It is easily integrated with popular platforms, such as Microsoft Teams. If you want to take your meetings and live events to the next level, try it out.
Conclusion
As various industries embrace speech-to-text apps, their accuracy and precision grow. For some people, they are still new and mysterious, others use them daily and cannot imagine old-fashioned texting anymore. VUIs are getting much more convenient, and if this trend continues, they can gradually replace texting for many tasks. Such enhanced interaction with devices, appliances, and machines will significantly improve our lives.
If you wish to keep up with the competition but haven’t yet implemented VUI functionality in your software products, it’s high time you did so. If you are a common user willing to enhance your mobile experience, try out these helpful and powerful assistants. Believe us, in a short time, you’ll find it hard to turn back to conventional ways of interaction with your devices. If you value convenience, follow the latest mobile trends. Pay attention to the best speech-to-text apps we have mentioned. You’ll definitely find the one that suits your needs perfectly.
