@ascendtis/react-native-voice-to-text

Convert voice to text in real time using the native speech recognition capabilities of iOS and Android.

This package is a maintained carry-forward of the unmaintained react-native-voice-to-text, rebuilt with full iOS support, New Architecture (TurboModule) compatibility, and ongoing maintenance.

Features

• Native speech recognition on both iOS (SFSpeechRecognizer) and Android (SpeechRecognizer)
• Real-time partial results as the user speaks
• Final transcription with confidence scores (Android)
• Volume level detection (Android)
• Multi-language support: query, list, and switch the recognition language
• New Architecture ready (TurboModule with codegen)
• Written in TypeScript with full type definitions

Requirements

Note: This package contains native code, so it does not work in Expo Go. Use a development build or a bare React Native project.

Installation

npm install @ascendtis/react-native-voice-to-text

or

yarn add @ascendtis/react-native-voice-to-text

The package is auto-linked on both platforms. On iOS, install the CocoaPods dependency:

cd ios && pod install

Then rebuild your app so the native module is registered.

Permissions

iOS

Add the following keys to your Info.plist:

<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs access to your microphone for speech recognition</string>
<key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs access to speech recognition to convert your voice to text</string>

Android

Add the following permission to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />

For Android 6.0+ (API 23), you also need to request the permission at runtime:

import { Platform, PermissionsAndroid } from 'react-native';

// Request microphone permission
async function requestMicrophonePermission() {
  if (Platform.OS !== 'android') return true;

  try {
    const granted = await PermissionsAndroid.request(
      PermissionsAndroid.PERMISSIONS.RECORD_AUDIO,
      {
        title: 'Microphone Permission',
        message: 'This app needs access to your microphone for speech recognition',
        buttonPositive: 'OK',
      }
    );
    return granted === PermissionsAndroid.RESULTS.GRANTED;
  } catch (err) {
    console.warn(err);
    return false;
  }
}

Usage

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { Button, Text, View } from 'react-native';
import {
  addEventListener,
  destroy,
  startListening,
  stopListening,
} from '@ascendtis/react-native-voice-to-text';

export default function SpeechToText() {
  const [result, setResult] = useState('');
  const [isListening, setIsListening] = useState(false);

  useEffect(() => {
    const subscriptions = [
      addEventListener('onSpeechStart', () => setIsListening(true)),
      addEventListener('onSpeechEnd', () => setIsListening(false)),
      addEventListener('onSpeechResults', (event) => {
        setResult(event.value ?? '');
      }),
      addEventListener('onSpeechError', (event) => {
        console.error('Speech recognition error:', event.message);
        setIsListening(false);
      }),
    ];

    return () => {
      subscriptions.forEach((subscription) => subscription.remove());
      destroy();
    };
  }, []);

  const toggleListening = async () => {
    try {
      if (isListening) {
        await stopListening();
      } else {
        setResult('');
        await startListening();
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.error(error);
    }
  };

  return (
    <View style={{ flex: 1, justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center' }}>
      <Text>{result || 'Say something...'}</Text>
      <Button
        title={isListening ? 'Stop Listening' : 'Start Listening'}
        onPress={toggleListening}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

Switching the recognition language

import {
  getSupportedLanguages,
  setRecognitionLanguage,
} from '@ascendtis/react-native-voice-to-text';

const languages = await getSupportedLanguages(); // e.g. ['en-US', 'en-GB', 'fr-FR', ...]
const success = await setRecognitionLanguage('en-GB');

API Reference

All functions are named exports of the package. If the native module is not available (e.g. the app was not rebuilt after installation, or pod install was skipped), every function throws a descriptive error explaining how to fix the setup.

Methods

Events

Subscribe with addEventListener('onSpeechResults', handler) etc. Event names are plain strings.

Troubleshooting

The native module "VoiceToText" is not available The native side was not registered. Make sure you ran pod install on iOS and rebuilt the app after installing the package. The module is not available in Expo Go — use a development build. Since v0.4.0 this surfaces as a descriptive error at call time instead of crashing the app on import.

Speech recognition does not work on the iOS Simulator Simulator support for SFSpeechRecognizer varies across Xcode/simulator versions. Always verify speech features on a physical device.

Android build fails with Cannot add extension with name 'kotlin' Caused by Android Gradle Plugin 9 registering built-in Kotlin support. Fixed in v0.4.1 — upgrade to @ascendtis/[email protected] or later.

Android runtime errors (should be used only from the application main thread, Cannot convert argument / ArrayList) Both are fixed in the 0.3.x releases. Upgrade if you are on an older version.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome! See the issue tracker.

corepack yarn            # install dependencies (Yarn 3 via corepack)
corepack yarn prepare    # build lib/ with react-native-builder-bob
corepack yarn test       # run the Jest test suite
corepack yarn typecheck  # TypeScript
corepack yarn lint       # ESLint
corepack yarn example    # run the example app (react-native run-android / run-ios)

If Yarn reports the lockfile is out of date, run corepack yarn install once first.

License

MIT

Credits

This package is a continued fork of react-native-voice-to-text by Abhaya Kumar Sahoo (Android-only, no longer maintained). Thanks for the great starting point.

Scaffolded with create-react-native-library.