Voice Typing in Chinese and English on Android

What Gboard's help pages say#

Google's help for advanced voice typing, which needs a Pixel 6 or later, lists English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, and says automatic language detection is on by default for multilingual users. Rambler, on Pixel 11 series phones, can switch between supported languages in the middle of a sentence; its language list does not include Chinese. The standard voice typing page says talk-to-text doesn't work with all languages. These features and lists change, so check Google's current pages.

• Gboard Help: Type with your voice
• Gboard Help: Use advanced voice typing features
• Gboard Help: Type in a different language
• Gboard Help: Rambler voice input

Checks in Gboard#

This is a general order of checks. Names follow what your phone shows.

1. Open Gboard settings, then Languages, and confirm the languages you need are added. Remove the ones you never use.
2. Before you speak, switch to the language you will use: touch and hold the space bar, or turn on the language switch key under Gboard settings, Preferences.
3. On a Pixel 6 or later, find Auto-switch language under Voice typing settings. Google says it is on by default, and that advanced voice typing needs your primary Gboard and device languages to match.
4. Speak one language per dictation, then review the result.

To pin one language: Fast Chinese or Fast English#

MurMur's Fast Chinese and Fast English each recognize one language on the phone, so they do not hop between the two. Download the local model before first use. On the free plan, local recognition also counts toward the weekly character allowance; Pro has no dictation character limit.

When one sentence has both: smart mode#

If a sentence genuinely contains Chinese and English, locking one language will misread the other. MurMur's smart mode recognizes in the cloud and supports Chinese and English in the same sentence. It needs internet access and sends the audio needed for recognition; see the privacy policy.

• Set up the MurMur keyboard on Android

How to choose#

One language per sentence: use a Fast mode, or Gboard with the matching language active. Both languages in one sentence: use smart mode. Either way, check names, numbers and English spelling before you send.