At least as of the first developer beta of iOS 27, the next-generation AI dictation feature for iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air is not enabled by default.

So if you’ve just updated to the beta, you don’t get the benefits of the new LLM-powered dictation right away. Here’s how to turn it on.

Apple says the new AI dictation technology delivers “as a major boost in accuracy”. As well as transcribing your voice more precisely, it also handles capitalisation and punctuation on the fly.

The advanced dictation system is exclusive to select newer Apple devices only, as it uses the new on-device ‘AFM Core Advanced’ model which has pretty high-end system requirements. As well as dictation, the new model also powers the new expressive voices (which is also an opt-in preview, as of beta 1.)

As such, the new Advanced Dictation is available on iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air, the second-generation Vision Pro (powered by the M5 chip), iPad (M4 chip) or later with at least 12 GB RAM, and Mac (M3 chip) or later with at least 12 GB RAM.

How to turn on the new dictation

• Open the Settings app on your iPhone running iOS 27.
• Navigate to General -> Keyboards and scroll down to the Dictation section.
• Turn on the toggle labelled ‘Advanced Dictation Preview’.

When enabled, the better dictation applies system-wide. That means it enhances features like speech-to-text available in any app on the system keyboard, as well as improving the experience of Siri AI.

The new dictation runs solely using the powerful on-device model, which means you get the same transcription quality whether your phone is connected to a data network or not.

It’s unclear if the new dictation preview will continue to be off by default when iOS 27 ships to the public later this year. It is possible it will transition out of ‘preview’ status and become enabled-by-default sometime during the beta cycle over the summer.