Why Does My Apple Watch Dictation Not Work?
There could be any number of reasons dictation isn’t working on your Apple Watch. It could be a hardware or software error or something completely different. And the error can appear in many ways, too, but the most common is “Hey Siri” won’t respond when you want to dictate a message, or you can open dictation, but once you speak, it just says “Processing…” and never actually creates the words you spoke. If you’re experiencing these issues, you can use the troubleshooting steps below to isolate and fix the problem.
How to Fix It When Apple Watch Dictation Isn’t Working
These troubleshooting steps should help get dictation working again on the Apple Watch. Work through each one until you find the solution that gets your dictation going again.
How Do I Turn on Voice to Text on My Apple Watch?
If you aren’t sure if you even have voice-to-text turned on on your Apple Watch, you’ll want to check it’s enabled. To do so, you need first to access Siri settings on your iPhone and then make sure Siri is turned on on your Apple Watch. You also need to make sure Siri is turned on, on your iPhone. You can do so by going to Settings > Siri & Search > and making sure it’s enabled. Once the watch is unpaired, restart both the iPhone and the Apple Watch, and then you can restore your Apple Watch from the backup and try dictation again. When both updates are complete, try the dictation feature again to see if it’s working.
On iPhone
On the iPhone, you can find Siri settings in the General category.
On Apple Watch
Once Siri is enabled on your iPhone, you can enable it on your Apple Watch for dictation. To do so, go to Settings > Siri > and make sure Listen for “Hey Siri” is toggled on. Once enabled, you should be able to open a message and tap the Microphone button, dictate what you want to say, then tap Done. You can also use “Hey Siri” to dictate your message and lower your wrist to send the message automatically.
