#BugAlert: Google voice typing gone haywire on Android phones
What's the story
Google voice typing, the handy option designed to dictate and type sentences, has gone haywire.
The feature, which is available on Android and several other Google products, has been producing sentences incorrectly over the last few days, ruining the entire typing experience for a number of people.
Here's all you need to know about the problem at hand.
Feature
First, a quick refresher on Google voice typing
As many already know, Google voice typing is a native solution that comes built into Android phones (among other products) and allows users to type full, properly punctuated sentences by simply speaking them aloud.
It works with a range of third-party keyboards, including SwiftKey, and enables a screen where you can simply hit the microphone icon to dictate messages.
Issue
However, it hasn't been working properly lately
Over the last few days, a number of people using Google voice typing have reported problems with the service.
Basically, they have noted that the feature is not working properly and adding punctuation marks way too frequently (and incorrectly) in sentences.
As a result, periods and commas are being inserted even after short pauses, making texts shorter and adding unnecessary uppercasing in them.
Complaints
Apparently, problems started after server-side update
Going by a report from 9to5Google, the voice typing issues started surfacing after Google made a server-side change to the feature.
And, the problem looks pretty widespread given that a number of people have complained about this bug on Google Help forum.
Notably, one particular post about this issue has amassed more than 400 responses so far.
Fix
So, how to fix this?
Google has not commented on the matter and there is no saying when the company will issue a fix for the bug in question.
However, as an alternative solution, you can disable Google voice typing from settings and use the speech-to-text feature bundled with your phone's native keyboard.
Even installing Gboard and using its voice typing functions can help solve the problem.