Today we’ve got some good news and we hope it comes true.. It looks like that Apple’s engineers aren’t stopping here and are reportedly privately testing offline Dictation for iOS 7. More details right after the break…
Although Apple’s iOS 7 web page makes no mention of offline Dictation, Hamza spotted code references in both iOS 7 betas (but not in iOS 6).
The functionality is currently not active in public-facing builds, but we are told that devices internal to Apple have the function up and running.
We are also told that while local Dictation is an option in these seeds, the former, cloud-based Dictation process is present for certain situations. Perhaps this will be an option in Settings or an option based on Internet conditions.
Also we expect to see offline dictation on iPhone 5 only..
Such a move wouldn’t be unheard-of. Remember, Siri debuted in October 2011 as an iPhone 4S exclusive before eventually being rolled to the fifth-generation iPod touch and iPad 3 and 4 and iPad mini.
Potential benefits of offline Dictation on iDevices are obvious.
First and foremost, such a capability would enable live feedback when using your voice to input text using Dictation. You’d also avoid unwanted data usage over the cellular network, always a big concern when on a metered plan.
The offline Dictation database could even help Siri respond instantly to certain queries, like setting your alarms, turning on flashlight and performing other functions that don’t require web sources.
There’s no reason to suspect Siri won’t make a leap to the Mac just as we’re all but certain that offline Dictation will at some point surface as an option on certain iOS 7 devices.
