Voicemail transcriptions very truncated

Question

Level 1

7 points

Voicemail transcriptions very truncated

Over the past few months I've noticed that my voicemail transcriptions are very frequently and substantially truncated. A prime example is the voicemail I received this morning, where the caller left a very clear 22 second voicemail (clearly enunciated, no accent, no background noise), and it transcribed only the last four seconds of the message asking me to call back. All the pertinent content (i.e., what the call was all about) was left out.

Is this a function of AI doing a poor job of summarizing, eliminating the important parts of the transcription, or is there a setting I haven't found but which need to adjust, or is it something else altogether?

I have an iPhone 11Pro, running iOS 18.2.1. I believe this issue started after I updated from iOS 17 to iOS 18.1, and I've been hoping a subsequent iOS update will fix it, but it hasn't.

I've searched the web, I've searched this community, I see no options to try in Settings->Phone. I would appreciate if anybody has any suggestions.

iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 28, 2025 07:06 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Indecisive1 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 30, 2025 11:18 AM in response to Indecisive1

Another thought I just had about this is that transcriptions used to be really, really good, with just kind of expected mistakes, but never had the quantities of missing text as they do now.

What could explain the recent degradation in the quality of transcriptions?

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 29, 2025 06:32 AM in response to Indecisive1

Background noise at the caller's end can impact Live Voicemail transcription accuracy. Here are some key factors that affect it:

Background Noise – If the caller is in a noisy environment, the iPhone's speech recognition may struggle to differentiate words from the noise.
Caller’s Speech Clarity – If the caller mumbles, speaks too fast, or has a strong accent, the transcription may be inaccurate.
Network Quality – A poor cellular connection can cause audio distortions, making it harder for the system to transcribe correctly.
Technical Limitations – Apple's transcription AI isn't perfect and sometimes misses words or phrases, especially with complex sentences or unusual names.
Language and Dialect Support – If the caller's language or dialect isn’t fully supported, the accuracy may drop.

Just to test this out record an Audio message in the iOS message App which generates transcription. You will understand this.

There are no known settings that can improve or correct this.

Reply

Answer 3

Indecisive1 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 29, 2025 08:07 AM in response to SravanKrA

Thanks, but no, the voicemail I described as an example was very clear, the speaker had no accent, there was no background noise, she spoke no unusual words or complex sentences, she enunciated well.

Just to experiment last night, I called my own number from another phone, left three voicemails. I placed the calls from my home office where it is very quiet. I spoke clearly and evenly. Two of the three transcribed perfectly, but one skipped over most of the message.

Following your suggestion, this morning I recorded an audio message in the iOS message, and the transcription was perfect.

Thank you again for your response. I hope this is something that Apple has heard about from others and is working on fixing.

Reply

Voicemail transcriptions very truncated

Similar questions