A recent update to the Google voice typing feature that brings with it an automatic punctuation feature is causing users inconvenience, as the feature is reportedly not working as expected. It must be noted that this is not the feature present in Gboard, but the one that is termed ‘Google voice typing’ that replaces the keyboard entirely when chosen from the alternative input menu..
The issue was reported on Google’s Support Forum by a user who complained that the feature was randomly adding punctuations like commas and periods when they stopped dictating to think of words or framing of the sentence. This is something that non-native English-speaking users might face if they pause dictating periodically.
The user shared an example in their post:
"So today I noticed for the first time that my dictation. Is breaking up. Words and making me type short sentences if I don"t speak fast enough. Basically, it"s trying to insert punctuation. Intelligently and it"s not working at all."
The post from a couple of days ago has gathered up to 530 upvotes and upwards of 500 replies. The volume of replies suggests that this issue is not isolated, with many people suggesting that the feature is indeed inaccurate and sometimes outright frustrating to use.
Google is yet to provide a response and it isn’t known if the feature can be tweaked or disabled through a server-side update. Regardless, for those that rely on the voice typing feature, the issue is indeed frustrating. Currently, the only workaround for this is to uninstall all updates for the Google app through the Google Play Store as there does not seem to be any way by which the feature can be disabled.
Source: Google Support (1)(2)(3) via AndroidPolice