Voice Dictation on Inspection Forms
InspectorData puts a microphone button on four state inspection forms: Wind Mitigation, 4-Point, Roof, and TREC REI 7-6. On Wind Mitigation, 4-Point and Roof it is labelled Dictate; on TREC it is a mic icon in the toolbar. Tap the field you want, tap the mic, and speak. Words appear live in that field as you talk, spoken punctuation becomes real punctuation, and your existing text is never overwritten. On the TREC form, stopping sends the transcript to an AI router that splits it into findings and assigns each to the correct REI 7-6 section for your review.
How Does Voice Dictation Work on an Inspection Form?
One tap, then talk. Every form that has the mic follows the same three steps.
Tap the Field, Tap the Mic
Open the form, tap into the comment box you want, then tap the mic button in the sticky toolbar at the top of the page and allow the microphone prompt.
Speak and Watch It Land
A banner appears while you talk - on Wind Mitigation, 4-Point and Roof it reads Listening - tap mic to stop, and on TREC it also names the section. The target field gets a colored ring and scrolls into view, and interim words appear inside it as you speak.
Tap the Mic to Stop
Tapping the mic again ends the session. On TREC, 4-Point and Roof that is also what triggers the AI routing pass over the finished transcript.
Typing Findings on a Phone Is the Slow Part
You already saw the defect. Getting it into words is what eats the afternoon.
Thumb-Typing in the Field
Long comment boxes on a phone keyboard are miserable. Most inspectors give up and scribble a shorthand note, then rebuild the real sentence hours later from memory.
Notes in the Wrong Place
Dictating into a notes app means every finding has to be copied back into the right section later. That re-entry step is where detail gets dropped.
Punctuation Cleanup
Generic speech-to-text hands back a wall of lowercase text with no periods. You spend the time you saved putting the sentences back together.
What the Dictate Button Actually Does
Dictation runs entirely in the browser using the Web Speech API. No audio file is uploaded to InspectorData and no API key is needed for the speech-to-text itself. Here is the behavior you get on the forms that carry the mic.
- Live interim text - Dictation is continuous and words appear in the field as you speak, not only after you stop.
- Appends, never overwrites - Text lands in the field you last touched and is added to whatever is already there.
- Switch fields mid-sentence - Tap a different field while dictating and the session follows you; finished sentences stay behind in the old field.
- Spoken punctuation - "period", "comma", "question mark", "exclamation point", "semicolon", "colon", "dash", "new line" and "new paragraph" all become real characters.
- Auto-tidy - The space before punctuation is removed, double spaces collapse, and the first letter after a period, exclamation point or question mark is capitalized.
- Keeps going - If the browser's recognizer times out, recording auto-restarts until you tap the mic to stop.
Which Inspection Forms Have Voice Dictation?
Four forms carry the mic. What happens after you stop talking differs by form, so here is the honest breakdown.
| Form | Dictate button | What happens on stop |
|---|---|---|
| TREC REI 7-6 (Texas) | Yes | Transcript is split into separate findings and each is assigned a REI 7-6 section code with a suggested I / NI / NP / D rating and a confidence score. |
| 4-Point (Florida) | Yes | The transcript can be dropped into a specific named field - silently at confidence 0.85 or higher, with a yes/no confirmation below that. |
| Roof (Florida) | Yes | Same as 4-Point: the transcript is sent to a routing endpoint that can place it in a named field, confirming with you when it is unsure. |
| Wind Mitigation (Florida) | Yes | Speech-to-text into the comment box you focused. No AI section routing on this form - on stop, the finished transcript is appended to the form's Additional Comments field. |
| Moisture & Mold | Not yet | This form has no mic button today. |
Straight answer on the AI part: section-code routing with confidence scores and a review step exists on the TREC form. The 4-Point and Roof forms route to a named field with a simpler yes/no confirm. Wind Mitigation has no AI routing at all - it is plain dictation, and the finished transcript is appended to Additional Comments. We would rather tell you that here than have you find out on a job. Questions? Call 612-457-1021.
What Happens on the TREC REI 7-6 Form?
TREC is where dictation goes furthest. Stop the mic and the transcript is sent to an AI router that breaks it into individual findings, assigns each one an official REI 7-6 section code, suggests an I / NI / NP / D rating, and attaches a confidence score. Every returned code is validated against the official TREC taxonomy before anything touches your form.
- High confidence goes straight in - A single finding at 0.85 confidence or higher lands in the matching section's comment box, its rating checkbox is ticked, and a badge reading AI-routed - review flashes for about four seconds.
- Everything else asks first - Multiple findings, or any low-confidence one, open a review modal titled "N findings detected - review and apply" showing the transcript, each section code and label, the suggested rating, and a confidence percentage, with Cancel and Apply all.
- Reassign before applying - A low-confidence finding lists alternate destinations under "Or route to:" as one-tap buttons, so you can move it to the section you know is right.
- The banner names the section - While recording, TREC's banner reads "Listening - dictating into: section label. Tap mic to stop." and rewrites itself the moment you switch fields.
- A typed alternative sits next to the mic - A notes button (labelled Paste notes for screen readers) highlights the destination field and names it in the paste dialog before you commit, then appends your text to it.
Voice Dictation Features
Details that matter once you are actually standing in an attic with one hand on a ladder.
Listening Banner
A fixed on-screen banner reading "Listening - tap mic to stop" appears while recording and disappears when you stop. The mic button itself also picks up a recording state so you can tell at a glance.
Target Field Highlight
The field receiving your words is ringed in color and scrolled into view when dictation starts or moves. You always know where the sentence is going before you say it.
Tenant-Isolated Routing
The routing endpoints reject unauthenticated calls and are scoped to your tenant. Only the transcript text and the section taxonomy are sent to the AI provider - no client or tenant data.
Degrades Gracefully
If the AI provider is unconfigured, disabled, unreachable, or returns bad JSON, your dictated words are not lost - the transcript comes back as a single "needs review" item you place yourself, and if the routing request fails outright the text simply stays in the box you dictated into. Dictation never blocks you.
Continue on Phone
Each form has a Continue on phone QR/share link that opens the same report - and the same mic button - on your phone, so dictation is reachable on a phone as well as a desktop.
Mic in the Report Writer
Voice dictation also exists separately in the main report writer, with a per-comment mic on every Step-2 photo card labelled Dictate comment.
What If the Browser or Mic Says No?
Speech recognition is a browser capability, not something we can install for you, so we built the failure paths to be explicit rather than mysterious. Use Chrome or Edge for the most reliable experience.
- Unsupported browser - The mic is dimmed rather than dead. On TREC, tapping it opens a modal headed "Voice dictation needs a different browser" listing Chrome, Edge and Safari, with the note "You can still type or paste notes - voice is optional." and a Got it button.
- Report writer comment boxes - There the mic button is hidden entirely on unsupported browsers rather than shown as a dead control, so the comment box just works normally.
- Permission denied - You are told exactly that: "Microphone access denied. Allow it in your browser settings and try again."
- Built-in help - The forms ship an in-product tour step titled Voice Dictation, with the tip "Dictate section by section for the most accurate routing."
Limits Worth Knowing Before You Rely on It
We would rather set the expectation now than have it surprise you on a Tuesday morning.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Is it hands-free? | No. Start and stop are both a physical tap on the mic button. There is no wake word and no auto-start - it is one tap, then talk. |
| What language? | Recognition is fixed to US English. There is no language picker. |
| How long can one dictation be? | A single transcript can be up to 8,000 characters before the routing endpoint rejects it. |
| Can I dictate into checkboxes and dropdowns? | Dictation targets text areas and text inputs. The one exception is the TREC rating checkbox, which the AI router can tick for you. |
| Does routing happen while I talk? | No. Routing fires when you stop, not while speaking. |
| Is my audio uploaded to InspectorData? | No audio file is uploaded to our servers and no API key is needed for the speech-to-text itself - it runs in the browser via the Web Speech API. |
Built by a Certified Master Inspector
InspectorData is built by a Master Inspector with 11+ years of field experience, not by a software team guessing at the workflow. That is why the mic appends instead of overwriting, why the banner tells you which section it is dictating into, and why the target field is highlighted before a single word lands. Every one of those details came from writing a Wind Mitigation form on a roof. Want to walk through it with a real inspector? Call 612-457-1021.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which inspection forms have voice dictation?
A microphone button appears on four state inspection forms in InspectorData: Wind Mitigation, 4-Point, Roof, and TREC REI 7-6. On Wind Mitigation, 4-Point and Roof the button is labelled Dictate; on TREC it is a mic icon in the form toolbar. Voice dictation also exists separately in the main report writer, where each Step-2 photo comment card carries its own mic button labelled Dictate comment.