Voice dictation unreliable on iPhone 16 Pro Max

Similar things are happening to me on the 16 Pro Max A lot of times I have to shout or scream for Siri to hear me. There's a huge delay, sometimes when talking before the words even start to show up on the screen If at all. And I have to correct one to two typos per sentence almost all the time it's embarrassingly noticeable as I do a lot of posts And comments on Reddit.

It would be nice to have Siri update if I have corrected it a couple of times on a specific word for instance "sub routine" Was often coming up as submarine. If I fixed it two or three times maybe the fourth time it could interpret that I mean sub routine?

Yeah, but overall, she doesn't listen. She misinterprets constantly. It feels like there is a hardware issue like it's a bad Mik. I had a iPhone 11 standard before this and it was significantly better on the same 18.3 iOS.

April 2025 still happening

I have same problem.

even though the microphone symbol changes to dark when I activate it ( in notes, messages, Gemini etc) it doesn’t work.

reboot fixes.

a hand symbol ( privacy) shows in control centre with microphone listed as recently used.

Siri won’t work either.

new iPhone 16 pro - 2 weeks old

very frustrating

Have spoken to three senior level techs at AppleCare. Issue is reported. Have tried all the fixes they asked. Now they want a screen recording of it happening (from another device). Apple 16pro, but I've seen threads on this with earlier versions. Really disappointed. My 14pro never had this issue.

I have recently “upgraded” to the new pro plus iPhone 16 from the iPhone 13. I have been so frustrated with the voice dictation feature! I rarely had an issue with the voice dictation feature on the 13! I will say I am floored with the inability to use this feature on the new 16. There are so many problems!

1. When you hit the microphone, despite it being lit up, it rarely picks up the first words and sometimes- it doesn’t pick up the words at all, you turn it off and you turn it back on and you try again and still nothing.
2. Even when it does pick up, it often reverts the sentence, like once it figures out to record, it finallly catches up and places the original portion of the message behind what it first recorded.
3. it adds it’s own function, ALL the time, particularly with periods, capitalizing new words. I just don’t understand how technology advances, why the feature would work better on an older phone than a brand new phone that you presume has the best of everything!

Are you saying that he updated your phone with the newest software? What software do you have on your phone?

The Apple tech updated to the latest iOS and dictation works about 90% of the time. Which is not good enough.

It's a software problem though. Using a third party app for dictation works. It's Apple's cruddy software.

I’m so shocked apple hasn’t fixed this yet…. It’s happening to everyone and the only fix I have found is to constantly restart. Annoying

The same thing happened to me, I work on an app using talk to text to chat with clients and in the middle of the chat, the microphone, which is completely stopped working I wouldn’t hear a ding. i’ve been working with iPhones for years and it has never happened to me.

Have to end the session with a client and I tested it with iMessage right after and it was the same thing. It’s like the microphone just completely goes out until I restart and everything starts to work and then it happened again the next day I just had this phone for two days and it’s been doing this has anybody found any solutions? I was on the phone with Apple. They have no clue.

Same problem with my new iphone16 plus, purchased Nov or Dec ‘25. I have apple care, plan to ask to exchange for a new phone. It happens mid-sentence, I’ll be dictating a message or email it just stops. The background of the micriphone image lights up white but does not work. Today, even rebooting failed to fix it. I also dislike the bell on/off button, prefer the old switch. I think the bell button gets accidently squeezed when I’m trying to handle the phone. Ugh. Really disliking this phone.

I contacted Apple Support this morning after both Dictation and Siri stopped responding to verbal commands. I wanted to report the issue and check if it had already been documented, but unsurprisingly, they couldn’t provide any answers. My device is an iPhone 16 Pro Max, running the latest software version, 18.3 (22D63). Their only suggestion was to reboot the phone, which I already knew.

I’m curious if anyone knows if Apple knows this is an issue and are they working on a fix?

I still have been having the same issue, when I called a few weeks ago they had no suggestion, I told them that is is the only was it comes back. I assume its the AI junk that is on the new phones.

I work online through chat and use talk to text, so I'm not about to start typing. Luckily I still kept my Iphone 14 pro max. I hope they fix it soon.

Yeah my speech to text isn’t working at all.

I just got this iPhone 16 Pro Max and to have this issue is ridiculous

I rely on speech to text.

i am also having problems with Hey Siri when I was in CarPlay mode this afternoon in my car. I didn’t think much if it at the time, but reading your comment made me think of all the small issues that are compounding one after another. I need a different phone!

This CONSTANTLY happens to me too, all the time. I’m so frustrated I wish I had just kept my iPhone 12. I have to come to these forums and go to Youtube and reset and blah blah. It just gets to be too much. Apple, please fix. And no, I don’t need an update; it just randomly stops working. I can see the microphone lit up as if it is but nadda. I’ve had so many issues with this phone but this is my biggest peeve.

I really hope this is fixed soon because I depend on this feature more than any other feature on my phone. I’m a real estate professional and spend all day voice to texting when this feature fails. It is highly disruptive.