UPDATE - 2024-10-02: Apple has resolved this issue in developer beta 5 of iOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1, so I expect the fix will be out with the final release of those operating systems very soon.
TLDR: Drafts’ Dictation and Transcription do NOT work when running on iOS 18 and macOS 15 and it’s not our fault.
As of today, September 10th, 2024, the release candidate versions of iOS 18.0 and macOS 15.0 - as well as the current beta versions of iOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 - contain an bug that effects the functionality of Speech recognition APIs. These APIs are used by Drafts’ in both its extended dictation and media transcription features, and this bug prevents those features from working properly when Drafts is running on those OS versions.
If you attempt to use the extended dictation or transcription features on these OSes, you will see behavior where text is discarded as new text is transcribed as the dictation session continues. Because this renders the features unusable, Drafts 45 (coming out shortly as of this writing) will temporarily disable these features when running on iOS 18 or macOS 15 and show a warning if you attempt to use them. It is highly likely other apps which rely on these APIs will be similarly affected.
Note: This does not affect Apple Watch capture/dictation, which continues to work fine on watchOS 11.
This bug affects shipping versions of Drafts, as well as compatibility updates of Drafts coming out in the coming weeks. We have reported these issues to Apple (FB13078071, FB14699348) and received no direct acknowledgment from Apple that they are working on a fix, or when or whether to expect one. I have, however, worked with developer support directly to confirm that there is no existing workaround to avoid the issues, so there’s really nothing I can do but wait on Apple to address.
In the meantime, a few suggestions if you have updated to iOS 18 and/or macOS 15:
- System (“Siri”) dictation still works fine. Tap the mic button on the keyboard on iOS, or your system shortcut on Mac (usually fn twice). More on how to use system dictation on iOS or on the Mac.
- On iOS 18 and macOS 15, the Voice Memos app now has built-in transcription features. You might find it a useful alternative way to capture dictation.
I will update this topic as I learn anything about a potential fix for this issue.