Google releases an offline-first dictation app on iOS called AI Edge Eloquent

In short: Google has quietly released a free iPhone app that turns speech into cleaned-up text, and it can work even when you are offline.

What happened

Google released a new dictation app for iOS called Google AI Edge Eloquent. Dictation means you talk and your phone types the words for you. The app is free to download from the App Store.

The app is “offline-first,” which means it is designed to work without an internet connection after you download its speech models (the built-in files that help it recognize words, like a language pack). You can see the text appear live while you speak. When you pause, the app can remove filler words like “um” and “ah” and it can smooth the writing.

Eloquent also offers buttons to reshape what you said, such as “Key points,” “Formal,” “Short,” and “Long.” It can keep a history of your dictation sessions, and you can search through them later. It also shows stats like words per minute.

Google says you can turn off “cloud mode” to use local-only processing, meaning the work happens on your phone instead of being sent to Google’s servers. If cloud mode is on, the app uses Google’s Gemini models for text cleanup. The app can also pull in certain keywords, names, and specialized terms from your Gmail account if you choose, and you can add your own custom words.

Why it matters

Offline dictation can be useful when you have a weak signal, want faster results, or prefer keeping more of your speech on your device. The launch also puts Google in more direct competition with other voice-to-text apps, including Wispr Flow and SuperWhisper.

Source: TechCrunch AI