How do I get Voice-to-Text back in my Android 4.3 for SMS texting?

I don't know if this applies to you but a friend of mine said he had that for a time and later found out it was only a free trial and then they wantted money. He no longer has it.

Googling, I first thought that little microphone which is now missing in the keyboard might have originally come from "Google Voice Search":

But, "Google Voice Search" is already installed, and has been installed since before I upgraded from Android 4.2.1 to Android 4.3.

Q: What is the app that adds a microphone to the standard keyboard?

Well, if I knew what had put the little offline microphone into the default keyboard in the first place, I could look up the terms and conditions - but I don' think it was trialware because the voice-to-text microphone was on the phone for more than a year.

That keyboard microphone disappeared about the time I upgraded to Android 4.3.

What I've done, in the meantime, is just now I installed a dozen purported offline voice-to-text applications.

Maybe one of those will bring the microphone back.

None of these voice-to-text apps worked, so, something is missing:

Each app gave a different (but similar) error:

- Sorry, you have no app for voice recognition.

- You have no app to recognize speech, sorry.

- Recognizer not present.

- Recognition service is not available.

- Not a system app. Illegal installation.

- Voice recognition is not installed.

Perhaps the most detailed error message was:

But, since "Google Search" *is* installed, what are these error messages trying to tell me is actually missing?

I'm googling for the error:

RuntimeError: No activity found to handle intent {act=android.speech.action.RECOGNIZE_SPEECH (has extras)}

and I'm finding it's a common one.

I'm pretty sure something is missing, but what? Here's all the "google stuff" I have installed:

- Gmail

- Google Play Books

- Google Play Games

- Google Play Movies & TV

- Google Play Music

- Google Play Store

- Google Text-to-speech Engine

Do you recognize what is missing?

Check settings, language & input, mine works (v4.0.4) and is set to default to Google keyboard, Google voice typing is set to automatic ...should place a microphone on keyboard when you tap input area!

I've hit every single button or option in Android 4.3 "Language & Input".

They moved it, in 4.3 to: Settings->My Device->Language and input->Default->Google Keyboard

I even tried removing and adding "Google Keyboard", all to no avail.

Once Google Keyboard is selected in "Language and input", clicking Google Keyboard->Settings->Voice input key=checked

There's nothing else about the audio or microphone input to the keyboard.

I think my problem is that neither I, nor anyone else, knows how audio works on Android. Something fundamental is missing or corrupt.

get a gmail account with voicemail capability. the telephone number you get converts voice to text and emails you the message.

it's free, too. doesn't do a bad job on numbers, but it's a hoot on dialects.

I apologize for not being specific enough in the request.

What I'm trying to accomplish, is, speaking into the phone, using the microphone of the phone instead of the keyboard, and having that spoken sentence transcribed into an SMS text message.

I'm pretty sure "something" deep inside the operating system is corrupted, since I've uninstalled and re-installed multiple keyboards, and a half-dozen voice-to-sms programs, and all those speech-to-text programs complain about a missing underlying hook: RuntimeError: No activity found to handle intent {act=android.speech.action.RECOGNIZE_SPEECH (has extras)}

At this point, I probably need to either find someone who knows what that underlying program actually is; or, if it's an inconspicuous part of the Android operating system, then I need to re-install the OS.

Is there a way to update the Android operating system on a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.3 when the operating system is slightly corrupted (but otherwise up to date already)?

you

that

Call me crazy but didn't your problems start when you upgraded Android itself? Maybe the answer is a downgrade?

?-)

Unfortunatly, I've installed so much on this Android phone that I really do not know /when/ the problems started.

While cleaning things up, /think/ I may have uninstalled a Google "service" that apparently controls the voice recognition.

So, what I really need to figure out is how to get a system /back/ to where it was, with respect to all the /required/ services.

Does anyone know if there is a way to check for all the required services (because clearly I'm missing one of them)?

Have you tried 'settings'? -

Good luck!

Easy. Make a backup before you start experimenting. No backup? In that case you are sure out of luck.

If the android device is rooted, Titanium Backup does a very good back up and restore.

Every carrier has its own suite of installed apps. I have a Credo phone. I get Google Play, Plus Samsung and Sprint Stores. You should be able to flash it back to Factory. Backup your data files onto a removeable. Remove it. Then Restore.

I have the same problem. There is a T where the microphone used to be. Let me know if you come up eith a solution.

I have the same problem. There is a T where the microphone used to be. Let me know if you come up eith a solution.

This happened to me on Android 4.4.2. I got the microphone back. I don't know if 4.2 is the same, but maybe it is. Try this:

Go to Settings->Language & Input and make sure Google Voice Typing is checked.

I know you've done that, but that's just half of what needs to be done.

Then touch Language, and select English. Without that, I think the program still won't give you the microphone because it has to know what language you're using before it can transcribe voice.

If you see an 'Auto' option for language, you can experiment with it, but I don't think it will work. I think you need to use 'English'.

If that works or fails, let us know.

I got voice typing back by a much more circuitous route but I think the above is all I really had to do.

The above advice came from a fellow name H Pham on the Yahoo Tracfone Users group. If this works, he's the guy who deserves the credit. If it doesn't work I'll tell you the terrible way I got it working, which involved downloading Google Translate.

One way or another, I'm pretty sure it will work and I think it very likely that it's a configuration problem, not a problem with needing to download software. I think my downloading Google Translate caused Google Translate to set the right configuration settings for me. I don't think the software itself was needed.

Alan