GoKawiilI constantly use dictation apps such as Wispr Flow, Willow, or Typeless to reply to messages and emails on both my Mac and my phone. But to do so, I have to use my phone’s mic or AirPods to dictate my messages, and they often don’t pick up what I am saying.
That’s why when Notta-owned SpeakOn pitched me to test a dedicated device for dictation, I was intrigued by its potential. Unfortunately, I had mixed experiences with the product because of its form factor and platform limitations.
Still, I think there is space for dictation devices like this in the future.
SpeakOn is a small pebble-like device that can stick on the back of your iPhone via MagSafe, just like Plaud’s AI meeting notetaker. The device is very light at 25 grams, so you won’t feel its weight, even if you put it in your pocket separately.
Image Credits: Ivan Mehta Image Credits:Ivan Mehta
The device comes with a companion app on iOS, which is in the form of a keyboard, like other dictation apps. You can also use the app without connecting the device, if needed.
To get started, you press the button on the device to start dictating and release the button when you are done. The device has one mic and claims to capture audio within 2 feet of distance. The dictation works in any app as long as the software keyboard is active. The speech is automatically filtered as the app removes filler words and can format the text output as a list if needed.
One advantage is that the device does not use the iPhone’s mic and instead relies on its own mic. Other dictation apps need to keep the iPhone mic active based on the session time users have defined. The SpeakOn device can help you avoid that.
My gripe with the SpeakOn device is that, despite having dedicated mics, it doesn’t pick up the audio well — unless I bring the phone within roughly two feet of range. And even within that range, the mics often underperform because of the surrounding noise. I am hoping for better quality mics in the next version.
I also wish that double-tapping the record button could bring the SpeakOn keyboard to the fore if I were using a text keyboard. Or if I could start speaking without switching keyboards, but those are system-level limitations that are possibly hard to overcome.
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