No punctuation in Google Voice Typing

[AC Question]

Surely I can't be the only one that is experiencing this issue. I have a Galaxy S8. The Google voice typing recognized my voice and transcribes words fairly accurately. What it cannot do is recognize punctuation. I don't mean the problem that others have had with it typing out the word "comma" or "period" when you say it. Just nothing happens. Question marks, exclamation marks, periods and commas are all gone. It used to work.

 

[Jarrod Aston-Assenheim]

I'm having the same problem period And I have no way to get an answer even when doing a Google Search full stop So as you can see I'm busy voice dictating right now comma and the punctuation is coming out as actual words

Did you ever find a fix for this

 

[Rukbat]

It may be the individual implementation of speech to text, but on my V20, the only punctuation it recognizes (and it does every time) is "period" or "comma". It's not Dragon Naturally Speaking, by any means.

Speechnotes - Speech To Text seems better with punctuation.

 

[RobinBownes]

I started using voice typing earlier this year on my then new, Vodafone V8. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well voice typing worked - including basic punctuation, such as "full-stop", "comma", "question-mark", "exclamation-point", and even "new line / enter".

I am a writer, and found that voice typing was ideal for writing first drafts. However, about a month later, punctuation suddenly stopped working. I had mastered the art of changing my vocal cadence - changing speed for punctuation.

One day punctuation worked - the next day it didn't.

It is now many months later, and I have tried changing my language options (various English flavours), exaggerating syntax and cadence when speaking, and anything else I've been able to think of. I've scoured the Internet, looking for information, but find only others experiencing the same problem - no solutions.

This is really frustrating. I had just found a tool that made my life easier, and hugely assisted my workflow, and then the tool broke.

Is there any way to speak/complain to the developers of Google Voice Type?

 

[irontechmonkey]

It may be the individual implementation of speech to text, but on my V20, the only punctuation it recognizes (and it does every time) is "period" or "comma". It's not Dragon Naturally Speaking, by any means.....

Although Google has alway been manipulative about what can be handled on-line and off line (and many words and phrases will be handled differently between on-line and off-line; usually better off-line) those 2 basic bits of punctuation (. and,) to which you refer have almost always worked fine on-line or off-line for me through several years and many dozen of ROM tests in CM/LOS across several devices.

Then, just this week on 2 devices running LOS 14.1/N 7.1.2 (1 new build, 1 three-month old build) punctuation stopped working off line.

Distilling possible factors which must have occurred or had an after effect which occurred within the past 2 days:

- Recent Play Services update.
- Recent speech engine update (though older than 2 days).
- Recent update to Google search app.
- Google's management of account settings.
- Possible side effects of the "speechnotes" app or other apps. I noticed this on my device immediately after installing speechnotes but it may be the case that test just incidentally flushed out a Google services issue created in the previous 48 hours.

Limitations of this type of speech typing acknowledged: IMO Google's practices in regards what is available on and off line beyond technical limitations is a root cause of issues just like this.

Will be keeping an eye on this through next ROM flash.

 

[mmarkotter]

I continue to have the same problem

While I continue to have the same problem on all my devices, phones and tablets for a while now there seems to be no encouragement of an imminent "fix". Does anyone in this forumn have another solution such as a 3rd party app?

 

[Chris5483]

Which keyboard are you using? I use gboard and the punctuation is perfect when I say it. I also have the S8.

 

[mmarkotter]

Re: I continue to have the same problem (update)

While I continue to have the same problem on all my devices, phones and tablets for a while now there seems to be no encouragement of an imminent "fix". Does anyone in this forumn have another solution such as a 3rd party app?

Here is my experience which is a bit of a twist on this trail. I live is South Africa and around July 2017 the punctuation commands stopped working on all my devices over a period of about a week. I have tried multiple times to get period to = (.) to no avail .... here's the twist .... I have just been to New Zealand to visit my daughter and all of a sudden the punctuation commends work 100%. I thought "at last they have resolved the problem". Unfortunately, on my return to South Africa last week, the functions no longer work.

It is clear that the problem is either country or network specific. Have not seen this being identified before.

 

[mamaofhumm]

Interestingly enough, google text recognized punctuation until around Sept/Oct 2017 and suddenly it no longer recognises punctuation commands and like everyone else it now spells it out. My android is up to date and I did nothing to my settings.

I feel a lot of tech companies do not care about the consumer and ignore issues they create at the expense to the consumer and it appears we have little recourse to fight it.

Totally fed up with being ripped off with tech companies!!!

 

[mamaofhumm]

Update...I went into my settings on my android, went to language and input, under speech went to text-to-speech, and under General I adjusted the speech rate and pitch slightly and suddenly i can insert punction with text commands....go figure!!!!

 

[mamaofhumm]

Another update...(I knew it was to good to be true) I just found that if I do not stay connected to wifi or leave mobile data on my text commands for punctuation does not work...very interesting!!!!!

 

[Robb Hammond]

I got mine to start doing punctuation again. Turns out that I was just using low-power mode which disabled it

 

[Hordeum]

Work again if you change your locale (using a VPN)

I think that the post from Mike in SA has the answer.

Get yourself a VPN and change your country to say UK or US.

Then try it, it will likely be working.

Complain to Google on the Play store and write to them at the email address listed in the developer section.

Tell them what country you are in (locale) and that it works when you change to another locale.

I'm in SA and when I changed to UK or Italy (for example) voice punctuation started working again...

 

[Cherie Kearney]

I've had the problem since mid-2017.
One morning I picked up my phone and the punctuation wasn't working with Google Voice Typing any more - it was typing out the words.
It had nothing to do with an update on my side since I hadn't updated anything since using my phone the previous night.
When I checked my other phone it was the same.
Since then I got a tablet - same story.
My devices are
Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 running Marshmellow.
Samsung Galaxy Core Prime running KitKat
Samsung Galaxy Tab A running Nuget

Clearly it has nothing to do with the OS.

I just changed my Language to English United Kingdom from English South Africa - no change.
I use GBoard so I went to it and deleted English South Africa and Afrikaans keyboards - no change.
I double checked Google Voice Typing settings - it's set to English United Kingdom.
I even changed my Timezone to GMT+0.

From what I have read on this thread it seems the problem is specific t South Africa.

I previously reported the problem via the Feedback for Google Voice Typing.
I will try again.
If you experience this problem please report it by going to Settings -> Language & Input -> Google Voice Typing -> Help & Feedback.

If enough people report the problem, maybe someone will fix it...

 

[RobinBownes]

Re: I continue to have the same problem (update)

Interesting. I'm also in South Africa, and my timeline of failure matches your's exactly. (see my comment earlier)

 

[Carl Schoeman]

Also in South Africa and I've just connected my VPN to the UK.... Punctuation now works perfectly.

Connected to home WiFi, same problem.
Connected to mobile network, same problem
Connected to VPN service to UK, problem gone.

 

[Chef316]

Yep... I am frustrated with this. Cortana on Windows does a way better job at this than Google voice and Siri.

 

[Santosh Sinha1]

I am in India. Faced same problem. 2 fix implemented.

Changed voice to English - NewZeland

a) "," : Working when i Say Comma
b) "." : Working when i say Point

After months I am again able to dictate my blogs.

 

[PratapBhanu]

I was having same problem bro but I figured out a trick. "." Speak point. (Hmm.... Not worked try again after completing the line) Speak quick or after a second....!!! I am Shure it will work. Say "New line" to move to the next line.