Google Docs and Slides step up their voice recognition game
Voice typing toolsreliant on speech-to-text algorithms have long been a convenient way to create larger text documents quickly, especially if you’re a slow typist, or you’re seeking a hands-free experience. Specialized voice typing tools are aplenty, butGoogle Docsand Slides include one for the average user. The company recently updated the feature to allow editing Slides speaker notes and Docs files using your voice, along with a live caption-generation tool for your presentations.
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Voice typing and commands are also now available for the speaker notes section in Slides. Interestingly, Google’s supportdocumentation for voice typingstill says you cannot use voice commands for editing your speaker notes. That aside, Slides users can enjoy one more new feature designed as an accessibility aid in presentations. If you’re using Chrome to deliver a Slides presentation, youturn on live captions. It will transcribe everything you say into text seen underneath your slides, just like Live Captions andtranscription on YouTube.
Once you start presenting, you can switch captions on using theToggle captionsoption underCaptions preferencesin the three-dot menu. Remember that Google’s method does not punctuate the live captions in Slides, and the feature may not work well in a noisy environment. If you plan to use this feature on a video conference, we suggest consulting other participants because Slides captions could overlap with independentlive transcription/translation features on Google Meetand other video conferencing utilities.
Besides these improvements, Google is expanding the availability of its speech-to-text utility to most major browsers. The above improvements will be available to anyone with a Gmail account, including Business customers, starting January 9. However, the feature could show up later for some, since Google expects the rollout to complete on February 21.
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