Voice dictation unreliable on iPhone 16 Pro Max

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?

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 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.

im sad I upgraded… 😒

Same with me I seem to do powering it off and on every few days. For a flagship model and useless AI Apple it's not a good look for Apple at the moment.

Hello , I’ve the same issue on mi phone 16 PM, I visited the Mac store for any solution but they told me that is necessary to send the phone to apple offices for a physical check due to there’s not a quality alert or something related with this issue . Did you solved it ?

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.

I submitted a bug report through Apple’s website and highly encourage others to do the same. Apple is more likely to address the issue when it receives a significant number of reports.

The link is below.

Official Apple Support

I'm having the exact same issue with my iPhone 16 Pro. I'm really frustrated because I had an iPhone 13 which I liked, but the screen cracked so I upgraded. I was excited for a better camera but honestly I haven't been impressed with the 16 Pro. Especially with something so basic like the voice-to-text. It's frustrating and disappointing.

so many of us have posted our frustration with this phone. And I will add, not speaking for you or anybody else: my disgust with Apple for just giving up on fixing the problem and telling us lame advice that we have already tried: re-boot make sure we are current with the iOS, etc. How about some corporate responsibility?!

The voice texting on the 16 Pro is bad when it works. I am shocked by how dumb it is in terms of word selection and auto-corrects, as you often say what you want, it writes it, and as you are hitting send it changes it.

THAT SAID, it just randomly stops working. Hit the mic, the mic appears, you talk, and nothing. The "geniuses" say to reboot and yeah, that fixes it for 12 to 24 hours, then it happens again.

[Edited by Moderator]

2-11-25 2055hrs UPDATE: I installed 18.3.1 and have been dictating away, so far no lockups.

Just got my Iphone 16 pro max 2 weeks ago and have been having this problem off and on. Dictation works perfect for a few texts, then nothing. Enable/disable/enable the microphone, still nothing. It shows the mic is on but acts like nothing was said. If I restart the phone it will work for a few more times and then stop. I have to say the speech to text is more accurate on this Iphone, than it is on my Samsun S24 Ultra, but the stopping in the middle of a sentence makes me want to return it. I have ios version 18.3

On reboot 376, just to let my phone dictation work. However, I did notice that your phone dictation will work if you have your headphones in, or if you’re connected to your car, suddenly it works. However, once you disconnect, it won’t go back to normal. Give it a try, I’ll work around for this expensive phone.

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

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.