ASR

Speech recognition, Speech-to-Text, Dictation, and Transcription: What’s the Difference?

Just like picking the right writing tool, choosing the right speech technology makes all the difference—here’s how to decide.

Rob Hoeijmakers

15 Mar 2025 — 4 min read

Choosing the Right Tool for the Job

A few decades ago, choosing how to write meant deciding between a pencil, a pen, or a typewriter—each suited to a different task. Today, with speech technology, we face similar choices: When should we use voice commands, live captions, dictation, or transcription?

Understanding these fundamental technologies ensures we pick the right tool for the job, whether it's issuing hands-free commands, getting accurate captions, or turning spoken words into structured text. Let’s break down the differences.

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) vs. Speech-to-Text: The Foundation

Speech recognition technology is everywhere, but how does it really work? To understand the difference between ASR and Speech-to-Text, we need to start with the basics—how machines process human speech and turn it into something useful.

ASR: The Technology That Listens

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is the brain behind speech technology. It listens to audio, recognizes words, and converts them into text. ASR relies on:

Acoustic models to understand sound patterns
Language models to predict word sequences
Machine learning to improve accuracy over time

Think of ASR as the "hearing" part of a voice assistant—it's listening, but it doesn’t always understand perfectly.

Speech-to-Text (StT): Turning ASR into Usable Text

Speech-to-Text (StT) takes ASR’s raw output and makes it usable for humans by adding:

Punctuation and capitalization
Better formatting
Improved readability

ASR is the engine, Speech-to-Text is the final product.

Key Differences

Feature	ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition)	Speech-to-Text (StT)
What it does	Converts speech into raw text.	Produces human-readable text.
Use cases	Voice assistants, search queries, live captions.	Transcription, dictation, meeting notes.
Output quality	May contain errors and missing punctuation.	More structured, readable text.

Dictation vs. Transcription: Not the Same Thing

Transcribing speech and dictating text might seem similar, but they serve different purposes. Dictation is intentional speech-to-text, where the speaker controls the words and pauses for clarity. Transcription, on the other hand, captures speech as it naturally happens, often including multiple speakers and requiring post-processing.

Dictation: Talking to Your Device on Purpose

Dictation is when you speak deliberately to produce written text. You might:

Dictate a message on your phone.
Speak out an email.
Use voice typing to write a report.

Dictation is structured speech-to-text—you control the words and often pause for clarity.

Transcription: Capturing Natural Speech

Transcription is more like a fly on the wall—it captures spoken words as they happen. It’s used for:

Meetings and interviews (where multiple speakers talk naturally)
Courtroom and medical documentation
Podcasts and videos

Transcription often requires cleanup, such as speaker identification and punctuation.

Key Differences

Feature	Dictation	Transcription
How speech is recorded	Speaker controls and dictates.	Natural speech is captured as is.
Editing needed?	Usually minimal.	Often requires corrections.
Typical users	Professionals writing reports, emails, or notes.	Journalists, researchers, and legal/medical fields.

Live Captions: A Special Case of Transcription

Live captions are real-time transcription, but because they’re generated instantly, they prioritize speed over accuracy.

Feature	Live Captions	Automatic Transcription
Speed	Instant.	Processed after recording.
Accuracy	Lower, due to real-time processing.	Higher, since errors can be corrected.
Use cases	Accessibility, live events.	Meeting transcripts, official records.

ASR Without Text: What About Voice Commands?

Did you know not all ASR generates visible text? Many ASR-based systems never show you what they transcribe because they’re built to trigger actions instead.

Examples of ASR Without Text Output:

Voice Assistants: "Turn off the lights" → ASR processes → Lights switch off.
Voice Search: "Best coffee shop near me" → ASR converts speech into a search query.
Navigation: "Take me to Central Station" → ASR processes the command → GPS system responds.

Here, ASR isn’t about producing readable text—it’s about recognizing intent.

Wrapping It Up: A Simple Hierarchy

Final Takeaways

Choosing the right speech tool means understanding when to use ASR, Speech-to-Text, dictation, or transcription:

ASR is the core technology powering speech recognition.
Speech-to-Text makes ASR output human-readable.
Dictation is controlled, while transcription captures free speech.
Live captions are fast but less accurate.
Not all ASR produces readable text—voice commands process speech without displaying it.

Understanding these distinctions helps you choose the right tool for the job, whether it’s voice-controlled automation, live captions, or structured documentation.