David ChartierJan 25, 2025

@agiletortoise Can you help settle some confusion? My Drafts on Watch can open a note and goes straight into dictation, but now I can’t find that setting or how I enabled it.

@jamesshoebottom claims auto-dictation was removed in OS 8. Am I hallucinating? Or is my watch magic?

Show threadDavid ChartierJan 25, 2025
@agiletortoise @jamesshoebottom Ohhh I wonder if it’s an OS level setting now. On Watch, in Settings > General > Dictation, I have Dictation turned on. And in other apps when I am able to add text input, it always launches straight into dictation.
Show threadGreg PierceJan 25, 2025
@chartier @jamesshoebottom Saga covered in the thread below. As of watchOS 11 they restored it so that text input should remember the mode you last used…you can’t force it to open in specific mode. https://forums.getdrafts.com/t/alert-for-apple-watch-dictation-users/11358
Alert for Apple Watch Dictation Users

UPDATE: As of watchOS 11, this issue is sort of resolved, in that watchOS has changed it’s behavior to remember the last text input method you used, so if you last used dictation, the next time you use text input it will default to dictation – so if you only ever use dictation, you won’t ever need to do the extra step of tapping the mic button any longer if your watch is updated to watchOS 11 or later. I wanted to draw people’s attention to a change Apple has made to watchOS in the current 8....

Drafts Community
Show threadDavid Chartier
@agiletortoise @jamesshoebottom Ah ok thanks for this. At least it’s something. And I guess I’m in a good spot since I prefer to at least try dictation first any time I want to input on Watch, so this works for me
Jan 25, 2025 at 8:06pmWeb
Show threadJames ShoebottomJan 26, 2025
@chartier @agiletortoise thanks both ! So yep I checked my watch series 7 settings and dictation is enabled. I then launched drafts and hit + and toggled keyboard to give me mic option. I recorded a draft. Repeated this with + option and now it goes straight into dictation mode. Really nice to avoid that extra tap! Hope Apple don’t remove it again.
Show threadJames ShoebottomJan 26, 2025
@chartier @agiletortoise I do keep a series 3 around as it still has longer battery life than my series 7 and I just rotate my watches around and charge the other. Sadly that is running watchOS version 8.8 so I do hit this bug/feature on that model.