Voice typing and voice assistants in Urdu on your phone

Who this is for

Typing on a small phone screen is hard for many people. Some find the keyboard fiddly. Some are more comfortable speaking than writing. Some have weak eyesight or shaky hands. Others read Urdu well but have never learned to type it.

Your phone can help. It can listen to you and write down what you say. This is called voice typing and it uses speech recognition. Many phones and chatbots can also read text aloud to you, using text to speech.

Voice typing: speak instead of typing

Most smartphone keyboards have a small microphone button. When you tap it and speak, your words appear as text. You can use it in WhatsApp, in text messages, in search and in most chatbots.

1. Add Urdu to your keyboard. Open your phone's keyboard or language settings and add Urdu. Without this, the phone may try to write your Urdu as English words.
2. Choose Urdu before you speak. Many keyboards let you switch language with a button or by pressing the space bar. Check that Urdu is selected.
3. Tap the microphone and speak clearly. Speak at a normal pace, close to the phone, in a quiet place if you can.
4. Say punctuation if needed. Some keyboards add full stops and question marks when you say them. If yours does not, add them by hand afterwards.
5. Read before you send. Voice typing makes mistakes, especially with names, numbers and mixed Urdu and English. Correct anything that is wrong.

Talking to a chatbot

Many chatbot apps have a microphone button too. Some also have a voice mode, where you speak and the chatbot speaks its answer back. This can feel like a phone call.

• Ask your question in Urdu, as you would ask a person.
• If the answer comes back in English, say "Please answer in simple Urdu."
• If the voice is too fast, ask it to speak more slowly or to give a shorter answer.
• If you missed something, ask it to repeat or to explain again in different words.

Remember that a chatbot can be wrong, even when it sounds friendly and sure. Read How chatbots work to understand why.

Getting text read aloud

If reading long messages is tiring, many phones can read text on the screen aloud. Look in your phone's accessibility settings for an option to read the screen or selected text. Many chatbot apps also have a button to play an answer aloud.

Tips for better results

• Short sentences work best. Pause between ideas.
• Spell out important names. If a name keeps coming out wrong, type that part by hand.
• Check numbers twice. A phone number, amount or date heard wrongly can cause real problems.
• Regional languages are harder. Voice typing is usually less accurate in Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and other regional languages than in Urdu or English.

Your voice is personal data

When you use voice typing or talk to an assistant, your voice is often sent over the internet to the company that runs the service. Depending on the service and your settings, recordings or their text may be stored. Your voice is personal data, just like your name or photo.

• Check the settings. Many apps let you see, delete or stop saving your voice history. Look in the app's privacy or activity settings.
• Do not speak secrets aloud. Never say your CNIC number, bank details, PIN, password or a one-time code (OTP) to a voice assistant.
• Mind who is listening. In a public place, people around you can hear everything you say to your phone.
• Be careful with the microphone permission. Only give microphone access to apps you trust and actually use. You can switch it off for any app in your phone's settings.
• Think about public voice notes. Criminals can copy a voice from a short recording. This is voice cloning. Be careful about posting long voice recordings publicly.

What to check

• Did the words on the screen match what you said?
• Are names, numbers and dates correct?
• Did you avoid saying anything private aloud?

To learn how scammers misuse copied voices, read Deepfakes and voice-clone scams: how to spot them.