Speech recognition of text in Ubuntu using Google Docs

There are not many speech recognition software available on Linux systems, especially native desktop applications. There are some applications available to convert speech to text using IBM Watson and other APIs, but they are not user-friendly and require some complex user interaction, such as some programming or scripting in the corresponding language.

However, not many users know that Google Docs uses its own AI technology to provide advanced speech recognition, which can be used by accessing Google Docs through Chrome.

Any user can use this feature to convert speech to text without advanced computer knowledge. The best thing about this feature of Google Docs is that you can use it on any Ubuntu derivative or any Linux distribution that supports Chrome.

Let’s see how to enable it in Ubuntu.

How to Convert Speech to Text

The prerequisite is that you should have Chrome installed in your system and have a Google account. If you do not have Chrome installed, you can visit ​​this link​​ and download and install Chrome.

Also, if you don’t have a Google account, you can create one for free using ​​This link​​.

Step 1

Open ​​//m.sbmmt.com/link/de535e267c10a7c88f2ed4283e8484da​​ from Chrome and create a blank document.

Create an empty document

Step 2

After loading the blank document, click Tools > Speech from the menu enter".

Enable voice input

Step 3

On the left side, you can see a microphone icon. Click the microphone icon and Chrome will ask for permission to access the microphone through the browser for the first time. Click Allow.

Click the microphone

Allow documents to access the microphone

Default , it uses your system language as the detection language for speech while converting it to text; however, you can change it to any language you want based on the list of available languages. So far, Google Docs supports and recognizes more than 60+ languages ​​while converting them into text.

Step 4

After clicking Allow, the microphone icon will turn orange and it is now ready to accept or recognize your voice. Start saying whatever you want and voila! You will see your speech converted to text and written to the document.

Voice to text in progress

Complete. You have successfully converted speech to text in Ubuntu via Google Chrome and Google Docs.

All Linux users can take advantage of this great feature for free. If you know of other apps that can convert speech to text in Linux, please leave a comment in the comment section below. Also, let me know if you found this article useful.

Troubleshooting

If the above features are not working in your browser, be sure to check out the following.

• Open the settings window (in the GNOME desktop of Ubuntu or other distributions).
• Go to Privacy > Microphone.
• And make sure it is enabled.

Checking Microphone Settings in Ubuntu

Summary

Although, there is a cloud-based solution recently Available on Amazon Polly, etc. But they come at a high price. In addition, some useful knowledge is required.

And Google Chrome’s built-in speech recognition feature is simple and easy to use. Although it's a bit slow, it gets the job done for the average user.

That said, I hope this guide helps you convert speech to text.

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