Voice In V4 launch

Hi Everyone,

We have just launched Voice In version 4, based on the new Chrome Manifest V3 standard. Chrome platform is transitioning to Manifest V3 in June 2024. This new standard brings several improvements in security and performance. To comply with these changes and ensure uninterrupted voice typing, we have completely rewritten Voice In for Manifest V3.

You might have noticed a pinned tab due to this update. Manifest V3 no longer allows background execution for dictation. Instead, it now requires using a lightweight service worker that can sleep when not in use.

On the positive side, this means that when Voice In is not in use, it consumes 0 CPU as there is no background thread. This change should improve your device’s battery life.

On the negative side, you will have one extra pinned tab that runs dictation, which auto-closes after 10 minutes of inactivity. Currently, there is no way to hide the pinned tab. You can just ignore this tab.

For more details, you can read about the transition to Manifest V3 here: Chrome Developer Blog.

Screenshot 2024-06-01 at 2.04.03 PM

We are aware of a couple of lingering bugs that surfaced post-launch. We are actively working on resolving these issues and expect to have them fixed within the next 2-3 days. We appreciate your patience during this period.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Voice In v4.1 is now live. We have fixed most of the issues.
Please restart your Chrome browser to pick up the latest version.

Issues pending

  1. Built-in voice commands don’t work in foreign languages.

Voice In v4.2 is now live. It contains some performance fixes and a fix for built-in voice commands not working.

Voice In v4.3 is now live. It fixes two major bugs:

  • Dictation across tabs setting was not getting saved. This release fixes it.
  • Fixed bug that caused built-in voice commands (used to implement punctuations, etc.) to not work in non-English languages.

Voice In on Edge has been updated to V4. You will start seeing the pinned tab on Edge too.