Are you looking for a dictation software? Most dictation softwares comes with freemium packages however, most of the best requires little subscriprion.
Many of us need to work and still be with our families and kids in the comfort of our home. But we can no longer keep walking in and out of our house in search of our kids when we have work to do. To solve this problem, we looked for voice dictation software which we can use in order to dictate documents, create reports and send emails with just a vocal command.
Converse Smartly
We included Converse Smartly in this list of the best free speech to text software because of its powerful and robust technology. It can quickly and accurately convert any audio stream to text including dialogue or discourse from team meetings, conferences, interviews and seminars. It enables organisations and individuals to work faster and smarter with greater accuracy.
Created by Folio3, the primary aim behind Converse Smartly is to increase the workflow efficiency of any organisation. The app uses advanced speech recognition technology based on the IBM Watson Speech API and the Natural Language Processing ToolKit and is one of the best text to speech software with natural voices. Top features include:
– Speech Analysis
– Text Analysis
– Summary Generation
– Perform sentiment analysis
– Generate word cloud from input speech and writing
– Identify key entities and themes during speech or conversation
– Live Audio Transcription
– Detect multiple speakers
– Spot keywords
Compatibility: Any device with an internet connection, browser and internet connection
Price: Free trial version
Demo Link: https://www.folio3.ai/converse-smartly-try-now/
2) Microsoft Dictate
Microsoft’s Dictate is here to prove that the even best text to speech software can be free and be just as good as premium software. Created by Microsoft Garage (a division of the company where employees get to work on their ideas as projects), this feature-rich application boasts the same advanced speech recognition technology that powers the Microsoft Cortana Virtual Assistant.
Dictate is essentially a Microsoft Office add-on and works well with Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. You can install it from the Microsoft store if you don’t already have it pre-installed with a copy of Microsoft 365. Once installed, you can access it through the “Dictation” tab that shows up in the top right of the Ribbon toolbar. The app supports voice commands for most standard operations such as typing or editing text, moving the cursor to a new line and adding punctuations either manually or automatically.
Furthermore, the app offers features such as visual feedback to specify that it is processing speech input. Microsoft dictates also supports dictation with real-time translation 60 different languages. Microsoft Dictate is compatible with Office versions 2013 and above and works well with Windows versions 8.1 and above.
Apps Compatibility: Windows devices only
Price: Free
Download Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/profiles/dictate/
Google Docs Voice Typing
Google Docs has now become an integral part of the lives of most content writers. Especially if already a google services user. So if you use Google products such as Gmail and Google Drive, and need an in-built, powerful, yet free dictation tool, consider using Google Docs or Google Slides and make use of their Google’s Voice Typing tool. It enables you to type with your voice and make use of over 100 view commands meant explicitly for editing and formatting your documents in any way you like. Including making bullet points, changing the style of the text, and moving the cursor to different parts of the material.
To use Voice Typing through Google Docs, all you have to do is click on the “Tools” button and then select “Voice Typing” then allow Google access to your laptop or PC’s microphone.
Compatibility: Any Google Chrome compatible device
Price: Free
Download Link: https://www.google.com/docs/about/
Otter
Otter can be used for taking notes and as a collaboration app that records and transcribes any audio source as long as the speech is coherent. Common data sources include meetings, interview and other voice interactions with data processing in real-time. Created by AISense, Otter uses Ambient Voice Intelligence for some of the smartest and most accurate speech recognition tools out there. Transcriptions are available within minutes so you can share them with your team almost immediately.
Compatibility: Android and iOS
Price: Free 600 minutes/month; $9.99 for 6,000 minutes/month
Get it from: https://otter.ai/login
Speechnotes
Based on the Google speech-recognition engine, Speechnotes is a straight forward online tool for dictations and speech transcription. Since downloads, registrations or installations are unnecessary to use Speechnotes, so it is by far one of the more accessible dictation tools available on the internet.
Speechnotes is incredibly user-friendly too — it automatically capitalises the beginning of your sentence, AutoSaves your documents, and has the option for you to dictate and type all at the same time. You’re your work is complete; you can manage your documents in a multitude of ways. You can either send it out through email, print and file it, export it to Google Drive, or download the files onto your computer.
Compatibility: Any device with Google Chrome installed and a microphone
Price: Free with an option to donate and upgrade to premium
Download Link: https://speechnotes.co/
Dragon (Top speech to text app overall)
Dragon Naturallyspeaking is the suite of speech recognition apps by Nuance. This is a conversational AI company focusing on listening and analysis.
Dragon speech recognition software uses deep learning technology. It boasts an accuracy rate of 99%. That’s one of the highest rates out there. Aside from dictation, Dragon uses voice recognition for voice commands. You can browse the web, send emails or publish reports. Dragon integrates with Microsoft Office. It works on macOS, Windows, Android and iOS devices.
Dragon comes in several tiers. Several of the more popular ones are Dragon Anywhere for mobile, Dragon Home ($150), and Dragon Professional Individual ($300).
Dragon is best for:
- One-person business
- Startups
- SMBs
- Dictation
- Transcription
- Voice commands
- Microsoft Office Integration
Website: Dragon by Nuance
Otter (Best voice recognition app for startups)
Otter is a very professional tool for transcribing speech and conversations. It’s great for meetings and conferences. It’s all done on the cloud and works well on mobile devices and iPads.
You can record any conversation right from your smartphone or laptop. You get real-time transcriptions of the text. You can then edit the text. It lets you add speaker notes, images, video files and audio files. The transcriptions are also fully searchable. It’s also easy to share and collaborate on transcriptions with teams.
There’s a free version of Otter with 600 minutes of transcriptions per month. The premium plans go for $8.33 and $20 per user per month when billed annually.
Otter is best for:
- One-person business
- Startups
- SMEs
- Dictation
- Transcription services
- Meetings
- Conferences
- Team collaboration
Website: Otter.ai
Speechnotes (Best free speech to text app)
Speechnotes is built using Google’s speech recognition technology. One thing about Speechnotes is that it is completely online. No downloading is required. But you’ll always need an internet connection.
Anyone can learn Speechnotes in seconds. You visit the site, activate your microphone and start dictating. The transcription works in real-time. It is decent but not nearly 99% accurate. There are also many voice commands to edit the text, which you use by holding down ‘enter’ and speaking.
Though this is free, you can get a premium version from the Google Chrome web store. It costs $9.99 and works as an extension in Chrome.
Speechnotes is best for:
- Free version
- One-person business
- Startups
- Speech to text
- Chrome extension
Website: Speechnotes
Temi
Temi is a tool used for speech to text transcription, and is a highly advanced version of speech recognition software. It works when you upload any kind of file, be it audio or video, and it transcribes it in under five minutes. Eventually, the files can be stored in MS Word or PDF formats that especially belong to Windows, and can even be emailed.
This transcription tool gives ease of use to its users, who are effortlessly able to adjust the sound, speed of playback, skip any part if need be, and add timestamps too.
However, the quality of the transcription depends on the sound quality of the uploaded file, and the better the sound quality, the more accurate the results. Additionally, if files are too large, it may take a lot of time to transcribe, and crosses the five minute set benchmark. It also has a little difficulty understanding multiple different accents.
A unique point of Temi is that it has been built by speech recognition experts who are also masters of machine learning. There is a little cost attached if there is need of the whole software, though, multiple shorter trial versions are available for free. Journalists, bloggers and podcasters or authors can best use this tool for their field of work.
Microsoft Bing Speech API
This Microsoft API is used for transcription purposes of the speech into text of any kind of audio streams that are fed to it. What this application does it, that it either displays whatever the transcribed text is, or it can follow and act upon the command given in the speech. It is best used in scenarios requiring conversion, dictation or an interactive participation, and gives great recognition results.
There are two important features to it: the REST APIs, where developers can use calls, HTTP format and use the service. Or else, there are Client Libraries also available for downloading, that belong to various platforms such as Windows, iOS, Android, etc. for any kind of integration.
It has great accuracy, is highly easy to use, and not very expensive, with a free trial version also available to check it before making a minimal purchase. One of its major advantages is that it supports multiple languages, for example, about 5 languages in conversation mode and 15 languages when it comes into dictation mode, so multilingual transcription is also possible.
Though, it gives the most accurate results when used in a continuous and real-time form, and may be slower in transcribing than other software.
Kaldi
Kaldi is a free speech-to-text software for Windows and Linux operating systems and available under the Apache License. The software was developed at John Hopkins University and was meant to offer super high-quality speech recognition solutions for multiple languages and domains.
It’s one of the few speech recognition software that is fully supported by leading technologies including deep neural networks and others. Kaldi comes with full support for general linear algebra, as well as, offers an extensible design for features-space discriminative training.
The code of the software was released back in 2014 and since then the platform is known for its intuitive interface and highest-quality standard for speech to text conversion.
Simon
Simon is a technologically advanced and highly flexible speech recognition software, available for Windows and Linux free of cost. The software offers high-level customization for all applications, thus can be used with all systems wherever speech recognition is required. What’s even better is that Simon isn’t bounded by any language, and can work with high accuracy with all major dialects. The software essentially brings in the automation to replace the mouse and keyboard.
The technology behind Simon includes KDE libraries, along with HTK, and CMU SPHINX. The software is available open-source and free of cost for Windows and Linux operating systems. Apart from being a speech recognition software, Simon also allows controlling computers through voice commands. The software is equally suited for disabled people. The strong architecture behind Simon means it can easily be used with all languages and dialects. Simon can be used to control various software and applications including media centers, emails, web browsers, etc.
Verbit
Verbit brings advanced transcription and captioning features using artificial intelligence (AI). The software specifically is meant to help enterprises, and educational institutes in faster, and precise speech-to-text conversion.
The software leverage multiple speech models including neural network models, and AI algorithms to suppress the background noise and improve the accuracy of the transcription by understanding the speakers regardless of accent. The AI algorithms also enable software to identify and incorporate contextual events from the speech.
Overall, Verbit is an ideal solution for transcription services, even though the software does offer direct speech-to-text service.
Speech Texter (Web Chrome, Android)
Speech Texter is a free speech-to-text conversion software that specifically works on Chrome browser or with Android. While the app’s privacy policy does mention that it doesn’t store any of the text, the text may be processed by Google’s server (since you will be doing it online through Chrome browser or Android app). So, one should keep that in mind.
The application offers easy transcription of speech, with great accuracy. The platform does allow live transcription, where you can click start and begin talking. Once the transcription is done, the text is shown in the main window with the “Result Confidence Wheel”, showing the estimated percent of accurately transcribed words.
Vocola3
Vocola3 is yet another great free speech-to-text converter. The software works in association with “Window Speech Recognition”, which helps to improve the accuracy and speed of the transcription service.
To be able to use the software, you would have to activate Windows Speech Recognition, before installing the Vocola3. Once the software is installed, simply turn on the settings of Vocol3 from the system tray and you are good to start transcribing. To further improve the features and functionalities of the software, different extensions can also be integrated into the Vocola3.
Conclusion
Dictation software has existed in some form for over a century. Nowadays, desktop dictation has been fully replaced with voice recognition software, which is much more affordable and accurate. However, it takes a while for this software to get accustomed to you even if you use it full time. This review explains how to use speech recognition software and why you should consider using it.