A voice keyboard with no keys to learn

Why dictation apps are keyboards

On iPhone, the only way an app can put text into another app is to be a keyboard. That is why every voice typing app you find is, technically, a keyboard you add in Settings.

Most of them go further and ship a full keyboard of their own: letters, numbers, autocorrect, all rebuilt so one microphone button has somewhere to live.

Two kinds of voice keyboard

• A replacement keyboard gives you its own letters and a dictation button. You get voice typing, and a different keyboard with it.
• A dictation strip, which is what Keyspoken is, has no letter keys at all. It appears when you want to talk and hands you back when you are done.

How you use it

• Touch and hold the globe key and choose Keyspoken.
• Talk. It is already listening.
• Pause. Your words are inserted and Apple's keyboard returns.

What the strip has

One large button, plus delete and return. Delete fixes a slip. Return sends the message or starts a new line. Everything else stays on your own keyboard.

About Full Access

iOS requires Full Access for a keyboard to communicate with its own app, which is where the microphone and the speech model live. Keyspoken uses it only for that. The keyboard makes no network requests.