You spoke, Subtle recorded you — but nothing appeared in the text field. This is one of the most common dictation issues and is almost always fixable.
Why this happens
Dictation inserts text at the cursor position in a text field. If there's no active cursor, the transcribed text has nowhere to go. Insertion follows your cursor — including if you move it mid-dictation.
Step-by-step recovery
- Check for a blinking cursor: Tap the text field once. You should see a blinking line — if you don't, the field isn't active and insertion will fail.
- Glance at the keyboard toolbar: If it shows "Recording saved" or an error message, the dictation didn't deliver — tap retry and your words come back. See Keyboard error messages: what they mean and how to fix them.
- Dictate a short test: Try dictating just "testing one two three." If it inserts, the issue was a missing cursor — just tap the field first next time.
- Use the paste fallback: If you tap the retry or recover button while no text field is active, Subtle puts your words on the clipboard instead of losing them — long-press in the field and choose Paste.
- Text landed in the wrong place? That's where the cursor was. Tap Undo on the keyboard toolbar, tap the right field, and dictate again.
- Restart the target app: Force-close the app and reopen it. Some apps have text field bugs that are resolved by a fresh launch.
- Test in a known-good app: Try dictating into Apple Notes. If it works there, the issue is specific to the target app.
Fields that don't accept custom keyboards
iOS blocks custom keyboards in secure fields (passwords and some payment forms), and a few apps use non-standard text components that behave the same way. In these cases:
- Dictate into the Subtle app or Apple Notes
- Copy the text
- Paste it into the target field manually
Contact support
If the paste fallback also fails, email support@subtle.co or submit a request with: the target app name and version, whether paste recovered the text, and a short screen recording showing the cursor state and result.