New Dictation Engine
KeyboardKit 7.3 added a beta version of a new dictation engine, that lets you start dictation from a keyboard, perform dictation in the app, then handle the result in the keyboard. Let’s take a look.
New dictation namespace
The new Dictation namespace has many new types that can be used to perform dictation. For instance, a DictationService can perform dictation where microphone access is available, like an app, while a KeyboardDictationService can perform dictation from a keyboard extension, where microphone access is not available.
KeyboardKit uses the controller dictationService as the standard keyboard dictation service, which in turn uses the controller dictationContext for shared data and observable state.
KeyboardKit doesn’t have any standard dictations services as it has for most other services, but like with autocomplete, you can unlock standard dictation services with KeyboardKit Pro and make your custom keyboard compatible with dictation with very little work required from you.
How to perform basic dictation
You can use a DictationService to perform dictation where microphone access is available, such as in an app.
Before you can perform dictation, you must add the required permissions to your app config file, otherwise the app will crash. You can then start dictating with startDictation(with:) and stop with stopDictation(). Since dictation may stop at any time, for instance by a period of silence, services must describe how to access the result when the operation completes.
A dictation service should call requestDictationAuthorization() to ask users for permission before starting a dictation operation. You can call this function manually as well, to not interrupt the first dictation operation with a couple of alerts.
How to perform keyboard dictation
You can use a KeyboardDictationService to perform dictation in a keyboard extension, where microphone access is not available.
A keyboard dictation operation should open the app and perform dictation, write the dictated text to shared storage, then return to the keyboard extension and let it use the dictated result. This can be tricky to set up, but KeyboardKit Pro lets you do it in a few simple steps.
Conclusion
KeyboardKit 7.3 adds a brand new dictation namespace, with many new dictation-related types. KeyboardKit Pro then unlocks services that let you perform dictation from your app and keyboard.
Since keyboard dictation requires app groups, deep links etc. the demo app currently doesn’t demo this feature. The KeyboardKit app will however be rebuilt and let you try out the feature from there.
For more information about how to perform dictation, please see the online documentation.
Discussion
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