Apple Dictation alternative for iPhone
Apple Dictation is free, built in, and runs on the iPhone for many languages. For a quick text it is hard to beat. Where people outgrow it: it writes down exactly what you said, filler words and all, and it stops after 30 seconds of silence. Diction is for when you want text you can send as it is.
Diction is a full keyboard for iPhone, written from the ground up, with voice built in. Tap the mic above the keys in any app, speak, and clean text lands at your cursor. You choose where your voice is turned into text: on your iPhone, on your server, or on Diction Cloud.
Side by side
Facts for iOS 26, checked October 2026.
| Diction | Apple Dictation | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on-device and self-hosted. Diction Cloud is $5.99/month | Free, built in |
| Where your voice goes | Your choice: your iPhone, your server, or Diction Cloud | Your iPhone for many languages |
| Works offline | Yes, with on-device speech | Yes, in many languages |
| Self-hosting | Yes, open-source server, docker compose up, pair by QR | No |
| Removes filler words | Yes | No |
| Formats lists and paragraphs | Yes, automatically or by voice | By voice: "new line", "new paragraph" |
| Rewrite text by voice | Yes: "make it shorter", "translate to Spanish", "make it a list" | Select, delete, undo and spell-out commands |
| Your names and jargon | My Words, spelled your way | Not documented |
| Stops on silence | Silence timeout you set | After 30 seconds of silence |
| Account | None needed | None needed |
Where Apple Dictation is the better pick
It is already on your phone, it needs nothing installed, and it works on the system keyboard you know. For short messages where a raw transcript is fine, keep using it.
Where Diction is the better pick
- Text you can send as it is. Writing Tools remove the ums, fix grammar and punctuation, and format lists.
- Edit by talking. Tell it what to change in text already in the field.
- Long dictation. Pause to think without being cut off.
- Choose where it runs. On the phone, on a server you run, or on Diction Cloud with Live transcription.
Try it
Diction is on the App Store. On-device and self-hosted are free forever. Diction facts has everything on one page.