iPhone Audio Text Initiates Automatically

Hello! I have an iPhone 12 Mini that is 3 years old. I'm on iOS 18.3.1. I have been having this issue for several releases now, but it did suddenly start happening with iOS 16 or so. I notice that after typing and sending a text, my iPhone will initiate, and start recording an audio text. I never use audio texts, and don't frankly see many reasons to do so. Sometimes I won't notice until I pull my phone out of my pocket and notice it's been recording since my last text reply, which can be several minutes to an hour or more. Sometimes I notice because I'm listening to something on bluetooth and it cuts out to record the audio. Again, I DID NOT initiate this, and this occurs at least 1 or 2 times a day. As far as I know, the only way to initiate this is to press the '+' icon on the left of the message bar, and then 'Audio' from the menu. Can someone please let me know 1) how is this happening without me very purposely performing 2 steps to initiate the audio text, and 2) how to I stop this from happening. Is there a way to turn this option off completely, as I will never use it on purpose. Thanks!