Aqua Voice, the best dictation app I've ever used, is now available on iPhone | Screengrab shows the automatic formatting capabilities built into the app

Back in the summer of last year, I started using Aqua Voice as a replacement for the built-in dictation feature on my Mac. I said then that it showed just how good Mac dictation could be if Apple really tried.

Ever since then, I’ve really wished I could use Aqua Voice on my iPhone, and the company recently granted my wish …

Aqua Voice on the Mac

I’m a huge fan of dictation and voice commands across all my Apple devices, and the company’s built-in voice recognition features have certainly improved significantly over the years. However, the company still lags dramatically behind other speech-recognition models like OpenAI’s Whisper.

I’ve tried pretty much every model out there, and it was occasional 9to5Mac disability advisor Colin Hughes who pointed me toward Aqua Voice. Since dictation models are a necessity rather than a luxury for him, it’s no surprise that he was motivated to find the very best one out there.

I was blown away with just how good Aqua Voice is.

To illustrate the difference between the two, I simultaneously activated Aqua Voice on one Mac and standard Mac dictation on the other, and then read out the opening to Steve Jobs’ famous commencement speech. The Mac version had 17 errors; the Aqua Voice version had just one.

You don’t have to specify punctuation, paragraph breaks, or other formatting. Aqua Voice does it all intelligently and automatically. Ever since installing it, dictation has become my standard way of writing anything on my Mac, including all my 9to5Mac pieces.

Of course, it’s unfair to compare transcription carried out entirely on device with a model reliant on cloud processing. I noted at the time that privacy concerns are the big challenge for a company like this.

Aqua Voice relies on using a server to do the transcription rather than doing it on-device. The company says that it doesn’t store any of the transcribed text unless you use the optional synchronization service between devices. However, that is relying on the promise of a developer, and many people are not prepared to take the chance with sensitive content.

Even more so with context awareness, where the app can see what’s on your Mac screen. The complete list of companies I trust to manage the privacy for that is as follows: Apple.

However, while that final step of granting complete access to seeing what’s on my Mac screen is too big of a potential security vulnerability for me, I am comfortable using it in all other ways.

Aqua Voice for iPhone

Aqua Voice set such a high standard that it became frustrating for me every time I had to dictate anything on my iPhone. I really wished the same quality of speech recognition were available there.

Around a month ago, however, the company granted my wish. I’ve been using the TestFlight version for the last few weeks, and the launch version for the past few days.

I’m really not a fan of having to dictate into one app and then copy and paste the output into another, which is how most dictation apps on the iPhone work.

What Aqua Voice instead does is act as an additional keyboard you can install. You just tap on the globe icon, select the Aqua Voice keyboard, and can then dictate into any app exactly as if you were typing. Additionally, you can edit the text by voice too – you can see an example of that in the video below.

Of course, you have to grant the necessary permissions for this, and there is one unavoidably clunky step imposed by Apple’s security. The first time you start a dictation session in any iPhone app, it will boot you into the Aqua Voice app itself, and you then have to tap back into the app you were using. Once that’s done, however, you can continue dictating within that same app – but it would make the iPhone version impossible to use for some disabled people, so it would be great if Apple could ease up on this requirement. (Colin tells me he can manage this when lying in bed, but not from his wheelchair.)

It’s a minor annoyance, taking a second or two, but for me easily outweighed by the benefits of having best-in-class dictation available on my iPhone.

In all other respects, it works exactly the same on iPhone and Mac. You get the same speed and the same astonishing accuracy.

One subscription covers Mac and iPhone

Yes, it is a subscription app, and in general I’m not fond of these. Indeed, for me, subscription fatigue started kicking in a full decade ago. However, as Aqua Voice requires cloud processing, then I do fully accept that a subscription model is unavoidable.

The good news, however, is that a single subscription covers both Mac and iPhone apps. You’ll want to sign up on the web, then login to both the Mac app and the iPhone app, That way, you avoid the Apple tax imposed on in-app subscription on the iPhone, paying the standard price of $10/month or $96/year.

For me personally, an annual plan is a complete no-brainer. A quick look at my stats shows that in 105 days I’ve used it to dictate 352,000 words at an average speed of 126 words per minute.

9to5Mac readers get a one month free trial

As standard, you get a limited free trial that will last you a day or so, but if you use this special link, you’ll get a full month of unlimited usage free of charge. You can download the iPhone app here, but don’t use in-app purchase.

As always with trial subscriptions, set yourself a calendar note to review it two or three days before it’s due for automatic renewal. Let me know in the comments how well it works for you.

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