Help Android voice to text through Google keyboard malfunctioning

[Doulos Adonai]

I was once able to dictate long communications between myself and other theologians who used android voice to text as well. I was able to do this on email, Google docs and text. Over the past two to three weeks, every time I write an extended email or text or Google doc, I get malfunctioning regarding the punctuation commands portion of the text. "Comma" and "exclamation point" etc., except for periods, are written out such as at the beginning of this sentence. This has shut down my ability to communicate with my friends and family. There are instances where it will work a couple of times in the beginning sentence then it will start writing out COMMA or the other punctuation except periods. Is there any way to change the voice engine or fix this problem? Please help. Many Thanks ....

 

[bad_dog_ny]

I am having the same exact issue, except it seems to be more common for me. It can happen anywhere at anytime. It seems to always happen on Facebook posts comma but not until later in dictation such as this. As you can see above exclamation point. This seems to be a new bug comma and it does not affect everyone comma older phones. It does not affect my wife's new Note 5 comma but it affects my old S4. I don't see any reason to get a new phone, but this is very annoying. Especially since sometimes it will type the punctuation, and then replace it with the word. Have you come up with any solutions?

 

[RazzMaTazz]

You didn't say what model of phone or version of the Android OS or version of the Google keyboard you're using, so it's hard to help.

FWIW, dictating words and punctuation is working perfectly on my Galaxy S5 with Google Keyboard version 4.1. (Specifically 4.1.22123.2053744).

You may want to go into your settings: Language & Input --> Speech --> Voice Input, and select "Enhaced Google Services"

 

[Doulos Adonai]

Finally someone who understands! I had a ZTE Unico with android 4 point something, and I thought it was the phone breaking down so I went to straight talk which is been great for me because it's the Verizon network, and purchased a new ZTE lever with android 5.1 as the basic operating system. I start using the phone and the same problem follows me! I cannot believe it! I don't know where the problem is but I use Google as my email engine and for just about everything else. I switched to a different keyboard called Fletsy or something like that and tried to avert the problem that way to no avail because it continues to use Google voice to text! I have to write as this is my responsibility, but I have been virtually shut down by this issue. Thank you so much for replying and believe me we are not the only ones out there. This is a BIG problem and it gets gargantuan when you have someone such as an attorney or a writer who uses Google voice to text as their method of taking notes or even composing voluminous essays! Someone has to do something about this issue. I have called Google and spoke to someone who was supposed to be from Google keyboard support but it ended up being nexus and he took down the information and what was happening to me and said he was going to forward it to Google keyboard support. I guess this will snowball as more people start to report it.... Thanks

PS – please let me echo my compatriot in this issue above in noting that it is primarily the punctuation "," that is written out as "comma" 90% of the time I say the word "comma" and the punctuation"!" Is written out as "exclamation point" almost 100% of the time I say "exclamation point". And like my compatriot above says, sometimes it will actually place the proper punctuation and then 2 seconds later switch it to the words written out! I never had trouble like this before and wrote extensively and I've been shut down from writing remotely by this. I'm trying to understand if I switch to Apple from android if this would happen because I have to have a phone which takes dictation.
By the way I am typing this from home using Dragon, not my phone. When you look at my compatriot's composition above you will see it replete with the word "comma" just to give you an idea of what anything we write using speech to text looks like

 

[bad_dog_ny]

Thanks to the other reply, it seems to have been fixed somewhat. It still happens occasionally, but it has improved a great deal. Go under settings, my device, languages, voice input. Samsung changed all the defaults to their engines. I set the default to Google basic, and I change the speech recognition to fast. It seems to be working a lot better, but not perfect. I just dictated this entire message, and only had to change one instance of the word, spelling itself out. As you can see in the previous sentence, it actually inserted the punctuation instead of spelling the word out! And it also put the! There. It seems to be working much better now, so go in and play around with your settings. Like I said I put it on Google basic to start, I may switch it to the advanced and see if it works any better. This seems to be working like it did before the issue arose. So thank you to the person who put that suggestion in the Forum. Again, go to settings, my device, languages and input, and there are a whole bunch of sections under their you need to check. Just a second ago it's spelled out the word comma and then replaced it with the actual punctuation mark. That is something I could see that you previously. Again, like to Google basic recognition comma and the basic keyboard. There is a, it did not replace properly. LOL. And when it did not spell out when I wanted it to. But this is a pretty long dictation so I will let that go compared to what I was getting before. LOL.

 

[bad_dog_ny]

And as you can also see from the grammar, punctuation input was not exactly perfect. The punctuation input seems to work better if you say it quickly, and move right on to the next word. When you pause comma it tends to spell out the word comma like it just did. Also when I said the grammar recognition above, I meant the way it translated my words.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

Yes, I tried the trying to speak as fast as I possibly could so that it would not spell out the word comma- there I paused before I said the word comma-. Anyway, we shouldn't have to try to speak like the Chipmunks to get our system to recognize whether to put a, or a comma.. this is the most ridiculous and disappointing foul up and bug I have ever encountered on a mobile interactive device. The use of punctuation is ubiquitous and it is essential to communication in any valid format utilizing English and a half a voice recognition work perfectly for years and then to start spelling out the punctuation that is used multiple times in every expressed thought is a very destructive malfunction and I just hope that either Google or Android developers will create a solution to this issue as soon as possible so that those of us affected by this bug can return to the utilization of our phones as dictation resources as we once did. Oh, and I manipulated every setting possible on this phone Kama to rectify the situation. There it is again and I won't correct that one Kama it is one of the frequent ways that Android and Google keyboard record my speaking the word "comma"..
This is absolutely silly in this day and age of advanced voice recognition

 

[bad_dog_ny]

No. There is a part of the settings where you can choose how fast you dictate , it starts with slow, goes to normal, goes too fast, very fast, and so on and so on. I sent mine too fast, and as long as I don't pause where I wish to place the comma it does not spell out comma Sirius. as a matter of fact, I had to go back and correct those two instances to get it to spell out. Just go under the settings and language input and play with your settings, you may be able to get rid of most of the errors. It seems to work well for me, and I am not talking like a chipmunk. You simply need to think through where you are going to put your punctuation a little bit. If you pause for a second or two before you say comma, it tends to spell it out. If you say it almost immediately, it tends to put the punctuation in. It seems to be working pretty well now, almost as well as it did originally. I think one of the Samsung updates changed all of the defaults, and that really screwed things up. I don't know if you are on the Samsung or another brand

 

[Doulos Adonai]

You are so kind to attempt to help me with this. The fact is, I tried to find the area you are speaking of on my ZTE lever phone which is a brand new phone with Android 5.1 as I thought it was my phone before which was a ZTE Unico and got rid of it to purchase this new one so I could dictate my essays again butt this ridiculous problem followed me. I am starting to hear about others having the problem but not cognizant of Android forum and do not bother with it. I adjusted everything from enhanced service to basic voice to text service, I even changed the autocorrect modalities. I looked all over my settings options on my ZTE lever phone to try and find the fast dictation vs. Slow dictation setting you were kind enough to tell me about but I don't have that on my phone. I cannot fathom why Android cannot set the voice to text for punctuation to default setting placing the punctuation every time and if it needs to be corrected and written out which is hardly ever, then the individual should be able to do the correction with a drop down menu. As it is, the default is the word "comma" and "exclamation point "is the default with few exceptions on my phone. Thank you again for trying to help. And I understand you are not talking like a chipmunk hehehe. But I have to compose my essay very deliberately and slowly so I am completely shut down because I will say "comma" and then consider what I am about to say and it just switches to "comma" every time. I hope they read this and take inventory of the issue and put the default where it needs to be for punctuation. Thanks so much again for your kindness and attention

 

[bad_dog_ny]

On my phone speech dictation rate is buried pretty deep. It is under Settings >>my device>>(input and control sub menu)>> language and input>>(speech sub menu)>>text to speech options>>(general sub menu)>>speech rate.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

Yes that is the exact route I took but my phone does not give options for the rate of speech. ZTE lever has no menu for speech rate manipulation or adjustment. The fact is you are even getting mistakes from time to time in your dictation even though you manipulated the speech rate. That should not be. The default algorithm for the vocalization of a punctuation symbol in the form of a verbalization of the full word should without question be the punctuation mark because the chances of any individual speaking a sentence with, in the middle of the sentence as a forward is miniscule unless you are speaking of an English teacher trying to correct her student or his student. The problem is in the foundation algorithm itself, the speech rate should not be an issue and it never was before when I dictated pages of essays. It started approximately one month to one and a half months ago so we are talking about March or late February when some drastic change was made in Android speech to text technology, disabling the clear and unadulterated dictation of speech to text by those of us who use it for a dictation tool for longer more protracted compositions where there are going to be pauses in speech. Again thanks for trying to help with us you are still being battered by this terrible bug.

 

[JimRockford_PI]

I was once able to dictate long communications between myself and other theologians who used android voice to text as well. I was able to do this on email, Google docs and text. Over the past two to three weeks, every time I write an extended email or text or Google doc, I get malfunctioning regarding the punctuation commands portion of the text. "Comma" and "exclamation point" etc., except for periods, are written out such as at the beginning of this sentence. This has shut down my ability to communicate with my friends and family. There are instances where it will work a couple of times in the beginning sentence then it will start writing out COMMA or the other punctuation except periods. Is there any way to change the voice engine or fix this problem? Please help. Many Thanks ....

 

[JimRockford_PI]

I'm using an Android 5.0.2 tablet. I had been struggling with the word "comma" being typed out, which was driving me up the wall. Periods and exclamation marks we're fine. Only the comma was typed out. I finally found a solution that is still not 100%. I changed the text-to-speech engine from Google to Samsung. Now the comma is being inserted correctly in my email client butt still not in the browser. So comma it is still a problem. As you can see the previous sentence did not work out. LOL. If someone finds a solution, please post it.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

I'm using an Android 5.0.2 tablet. I had been struggling with the word "comma" being typed out, which was driving me up the wall. Periods and exclamation marks we're fine. Only the comma was typed out. I finally found a solution that is still not 100%. I changed the text-to-speech engine from Google to Samsung. Now the comma is being inserted correctly in my email client butt still not in the browser. So comma it is still a problem. As you can see the previous sentence did not work out. LOL. If someone finds a solution, please post it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to add your voice to this thread. There are many experiencing this problem who do not have the knowledge that this forum even exist where their voice can be heard . I have had to Resort to speaking very short sentences without comma... and there you go- the word "comma" spelled out yet again!

And as an aside to those of you still having the problem I have heard about and experienced Without End on my ZTE lever... "exclamation point" turned into a completely useless command as it was spelled out each and every time as well. I was looking through some of the old command list threads for punctuation on Android and I saw the command "exclamation mark". If you are having this problem with exclamation point being spelled out all the time... Let me show you how well the other command... exclamation mark works... !!! ..... as you see I am getting a 100% punctuation result with that command. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen with mobile technology comma ( I meant the punctuation mark of course) with so many vastly talented individuals putting work into Android... And suddenly a massive voice to text punctuation bug regarding the punctuation mark utilized most often after the "." ...which is the "," ... is impossible or very rarely the result of using the voice command for that punctuation "comma" initiated by the Android voice to text OS programmers.

It is amazing I can get Android's Voice to Text engine through Google Voice Typing to understand words such as antidisestablishmentarianism .... but not the word "comma".

Oh yes... ("..." My ridiculos alternative to " comma") I have tweaked every possible setting from beginning to end on the phone to very little avail temporarily and then back to a total Voice to Text bug environment. One of our friends at the New York said he received some temporary relief from changing the voice rate to slow. What he did not understand was that he was changing the voice rate for text to voice Kama so it had no effect on his actual bug. Oh! And there's another manifestation of what the word, brings up "Kama". That's what that was in the last sentence! This is the most ludicrous bug and debilitating defeat of Android system technology I have ever seen because the foundation of mobile phone technology is communication and this jettisons the entire texting and emailing communication system when using voice to text on the go i.e. when MOBILE!!

 

[MLSS]

Try explanation mark......
Which is the proper term.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

Thx MLSS. If you read my post, that is what I was actually saying...I switched to mark instead of point, the command which had worked for me for years.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

I am still looking into how to deal with the problem many of us are having with Google Voice typing on Android 5.1 and other Android 5 versions. Does anyone know how to erase the word "comma" from the ACTUAL Google voice typing dictionary which from what I can gather, is actually the Android system's dictionary...is that right?

Or Is there any way to use the personal dictionary and shortcuts to make the word spelled out "comma", which is the constant problem many of us are experiencing, recognized as the actual punctuation mark? I am still having to type out the punctuation and edit all my emails and texts to take out the word spelled out and replace it with a ",". This is the most useless voice to text system I have ever encountered because that is the most common punctuation mark used.

Is there any other voice to text engine other than dragon that anyone knows of? I have had to switch to drive in and pay for it because Google voice to text is so useless to me now because of the comma punctuation mark issue. If anyone knows of a voice to text engine other than dragon and this useless Google Voice typing on Android, please let me know. Thanks everyone

 

[moneyhouse30]

Doulos - I just want to tell you that I am so glad I found this thread. I second everything you've said. I am experiencing that exact same problem with the same frustration and for the same exact amount of time. Having it work well for so long and now being completely worthless is a real kick in the gut. This affects the amount of income I earn and it has to be such an easy fix.

PLEASE someone help us. And again, if you read through the above posts, I have tweaked every setting possible to no avail.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

I understand completely MH. The fact is, it is a destructive bug seemingly ignored by the android programmers and the phone makers as well. I have spoken to many individuals who utilize the android OS across ZTE and Samsung phone platforms, which I have heard from primarily but other phone maker users who have chimed in as well.

I cannot comprehend why this would be ignored with what is at stake regarding the technology market. I am actually gravitating back toward usage of my laptop and have had to do what Google voice typing, using android claims it wants to help us avoid, and that is to use pricey market apps like Dragon to compose the simplest voice to text compositions because the word "comma" litters any basic composition I write FORGET the more complex treatises !

I got in touch with the ZTE directly and the most they would give me as far as remedy for this deleterious issue and catastrophic malfunction?????!!!!!
PHONE RESET INSTRUCTIONS...

 

[LocalHero]

Well just add me to the list of Android users who has been cursing this glitch for way too long. Glad to learn that I can use "exclamation mark" to get a ! but that isn't really a solution to the whole problem. I've gotten so used to correcting my voice texts that I find myself going back to swiping more and more.
I've tried downloading the US English language file again but it didn't seem to help. I'm going to watch this thread to see if anyone comes up with a solution. I'm using a Samsung S5 running android 5.0 on the Verizon system.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

Local Hero, You are not alone at all but I think that you have put another piece in the puzzle. I am using the ZTE lever on Verizon through Straight Talk with Android 5.1. This piece of junk voice to text driver by Android 5.1 on Google Voice Typing is the most useless dictation program for voice to text I have ever used even comparing it to the earliest versions voice-to-text technology which I have been using from the beginning! This useless addition to my phone has a caveat that goes even further than that. All of the other free voice to text apps use this trash by Android!! So there is no way around it if you actually want to have the voice to text say what you want it to say and actually be able to translate the word comma into a punctuation mark! And yes I just said the word comma and that's what I get every time comma comma comma comma comma comma and so on and so on and so on... Having to go correct each and every text I have to write on this junk system. I will tell you good people out there. If you are about to buy an Android phone, you better think twice about it because to even have the punctuation mark that I just put into this sentence I had to go back and type it. What a racket. I had to purchase dragon app on my phone just to get Facebook posts or any message of extended length and all emails correct while on the Run and to do any work in my Ministry which requires constant writing.

There are many many more of us out there who I have talked to but they don't have time to put their issues on a forum. What really blows me away is that Android developers know that this is the issue Kama that Android 5 + 5.1 maybe on Verizon network exclusively, I don't know but definitely Android 5 + 5.1 and maybe even others, can't even recognize a comma in Google Voice typing as a punctuation mark, (",'s" added manually) as you just saw when I said the word comma. Oh!And there's another manifestation the punctuation bug with Android 5 and Google Voice typing! See if you can find it in the last paragraph. I don't know where they got it but it is a common occurrence along with the word comma and it is "Kama".
Android 5 + 5.1 with Google Voice typing is useless

 

[Coopster213]

I am so glad I found this forum. I've been having the same issues on my new Galaxy S7 Edge. Most of the time comma it happens with exclamation point and comma. As you can see. Works fine. Comma and exclamation point don't work at all. My carrier is Verizon

 

[Doulos Adonai]

Another dissatisfied user of Verizon using the Android operating system send Google voice typing. There are thousands upon thousands of us out there and it is unthinkable that's the company's do not respond to eliminate the fact that there software can even recognize the second most used punctuation mark as the punctuation mark.... a comma I will use the word in a chain of words separated by what should be the punctuation mark. There it goes comma and again comma and again comma and again comma and on and on and on. Buyers of cell phones from Verizon with the Android system better beware and this includes Straight Talk phones that use the Verizon network like ZTE. You are playing Russian roulette with your ability to compose discernible texts and emails if you plan on using a comma because the only thing that's going to appear when you say that word comma is the word comma as you see right here. It's time to do something about this Android developers.... Google voice typing and Verizon. Our phones have become sources of great irritation and frustration instead of useful tools in communicating via text.

 

[Doulos Adonai]

Sorry I have not updated in awhile but I got so fed up with the useless Google voice to text app on Android that I switched to a dragon by Nuance app. I think I mentioned this before and it works so well that I actually got used to being able to speak my dictation to the phone once again but it comes at the cost of $45 every 3 months which is ridiculous when Google purports to have an app that does essentially the same thing but with less bells and whistles. Well those basic operating expectations do not exist on my phone and on the phone of all the users who wrote in on this thread earlier.

I wanted to give an update because there was about a week and a half long. In February of this year 2017 that I was able to actually use the word comma and it actually turned up as the punctuation mark in the sentences I was speaking as I was testing my new phone simply to see if it worked properly. So for about a week and a half I was able to dictate messages once again using the voice to text app by Google instead of paying $45 every 3 months to this Nuance Dragon racket. Even though I was able to use it for that duration comma and I am purposefully leaving the word for the punctuation that comes up everytime I say it so please understand that comma even though I was able to use the voice to text by Google and it actually work 4 a week and a half I did not trust the supposition that it will continue to work. And of course I was correct as I proceeded into the latter half of the second week the word comma started to appear once again and me as well as my other Android users on phones buy ZTE and Samsung and others comma were made susceptible to the same ridiculous and easily fixable malfunction in this ridiculous Android platform run Google voice to text app. Again I encourage you to read through what I just wrote by voice to text and you will see the overwhelming frustration so many of us are exposed to daily which has eventually made many of us have to pay ridiculous money for a simple Voice to Text platform that we need by having to purchase a more complex platform with bells and whistles we do not in any way have need of.


I truly hope at some point, some Android developer will gain the aptitude to correct such a simple error or the Google voice to text Developers to do the same because it has made your platform based in Android along with the app in Google Voice to Text look amateur comma puerile and silly comma like a grade school computer code project by children instead of a platform operating system of universal Effectiveness and a voice to text app driven by that operating system manufactured and tested by one of the largest and most effective information technology companies in the world, Google. I had to correct that last punctuation mark after the word "world" comma just to show you that my function button does work for the punctuation mark called comma.

 

[brad65807]

So for the last few days I have been having the same issue of it typing out "comma" etc. But now it duplicates what I say sometimes even being incorrect. In the following sentence I am going to say "google text to speech is not working correctly" and watch what happens :

Google text to speech is not working correctlyGoogle text to speech not working correctly Google Text-to-Speech is not working correctly Google Text-to-Speech and not working correctly Google Text-to-Speech isn't working correctly

So basically it repeats several times changing parts of the sentence