Flow is transcribing in the wrong language
Last updated: October 16, 2026
Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android
If Flow types another language or mixes scripts mid-sentence, select only the language you're speaking. For multilingual dictation, keep a small intended set. This improves identification but does not lock every dictation to those languages or scripts.
Warning: Do not log out or clear app data while troubleshooting if you need to retain local voice history.
How to fix it
Mac and Windows
Choose dictation languages in Settings; the Flow Bar has no per-dictation language picker.
Warning: Closing the dialog without clicking Save and close discards your changes.
Open Settings from the Flow Bar's right-click menu.
Click Change beside Languages in General to open My languages.
Turn off Auto-detect in the dialog header if it's on.
Select the language you're speaking, using “Search for any languages” if needed.
Remove other languages with the minus (–) control on each entry in Selected.
Click Save and close to apply your changes.
Auto-detect allows unrestricted language detection. Turning it on clears specific selections and hides search; turning it off restores those selections only within the same open dialog. Reopening a saved Auto-detect dialog and turning it off leaves nothing selected. Selecting a language and saving ends Auto-detect.
Saving an empty selection with Auto-detect off shows “Please select at least one language or turn on auto-detect”. Your edits remain open: select a language or enable Auto-detect, then click Save and close.
iOS
Each tap saves immediately — there is no Save button.
Open Settings in the Flow app.
Tap Set language in General.
Select the language you're speaking, using search if needed.
Tap other selected languages to deselect them; unrelated languages are not removed automatically.
Swipe the language sheet down to close it.
Selecting a specific language removes 🔍 Auto-detect. Selecting Auto-detect replaces all other selections; removing the last specific language restores it.
A fresh install without saved choices uses the iPhone's preferred languages, falling back to English rather than Auto-detect. British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English map to British English; Swiss/Liechtenstein German maps to Swiss German. Chinese uses Simplified for Hans/China/Singapore and Traditional for Hant/Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao.
Android
Languages initially lists only your selected languages.
Warning: Leaving Languages without saving discards changes. Back from Select languages only returns to Languages; it doesn't save or exit.
Open Settings → General → Languages.
Tap each unwanted selected language to remove it.
Tap Add more to open Select languages.
Select the language you're speaking, using search if needed.
Tap Done to return to Languages.
Tap Save to apply your selection.
Save remains disabled without an error until you select at least one language. Confirm your saved choices in Settings: the Languages row lists them, or shows “No languages selected”.
Initial choices follow the device locale, falling back to English if none match. Chinese defaults to Simplified for China, Singapore or Hans script; other Chinese locales use Traditional.
Verify: Dictate a short phrase. If Flow transcribes it correctly, you're done. If it still uses the wrong language or script after your settings are correct, continue to Still stuck?
Choose the right variant
On every platform, selecting one variant silently removes the conflicting variant: English / English - British, Hindi / Hinglish, Chinese - Simplified / Chinese - Traditional, and German / German - Swiss. On Mac and Windows, English - Canadian joins the English group: selecting any one removes the other two. iOS and Android do not list English - Canadian.
English spelling: Select English - British or English (American English) explicitly.
Hinglish: Select Hinglish explicitly for Hindi in English letters, not Hindi or English. Auto-detect never produces Hinglish.
Hindi and Urdu: Hindi or Hinglish can stay selected with Urdu if you use both.
Other language problems
Smart Formatting and Auto Cleanup edit already-recognized speech; they do not choose the recognition language or fix words recognized in the wrong language or script.
Languages differ between desktop and iPhone
Choices from another device apply only when no language is set locally on the iPhone, your account has a saved, non-empty choice, and Flow recognizes at least one language or Auto-detect. An existing local choice must be changed manually under Settings → General → Set language.
Open Settings to refresh account preferences. If you've never picked a language on this iPhone, signing out and back in clears local preferences and can apply your account's choices under the same conditions; check Set language afterward. Follow the history-protection warning above before signing out.
A name or individual word appears in another script
English-only settings do not guarantee that every individual name or word will use the expected script. This is different from a whole dictation being recognized in the wrong language.
On desktop, add a personal Dictionary correction for a repeatedly misrendered word:
Open the Add to vocabulary dialog in Dictionary.
Enable Correct a misspelling.
Enter the wrong form in Misspelling and the desired form in Correct spelling.
Save the personal correction; it applies immediately.
Each different wrong-script or spelling variant needs its own correction, so this is not a scalable fix for a large vocabulary. Both fields allow up to 60 characters; duplicate misspellings and triggers consisting only of spaces, punctuation or symbols are rejected.
Dictate the word again. If the mismatch persists, report the affected transcript.
Traditional Chinese on Android
A human support update on October 7, 2026, described a narrow Android behavior in which phrases of about two seconds or less can sometimes be misidentified and conversion to Traditional Chinese can be skipped. Speaking in slightly longer phrases was suggested as an interim workaround; no release date was confirmed. Recheck the current status before treating this as an ongoing known issue.
For temporary, not guaranteed recovery of an affected recording, use Retry Transcript.
Warning: Retry replaces the existing History entry rather than creating a separate result. It requires the recording's audio to remain on the device.
Open the affected Android History entry.
Tap ⋯ (More options).
Choose Retry Transcript.
Copy the result only if it is Traditional Chinese. No repair date was confirmed as of October 8, 2026.
If audio is unavailable, Retry may be absent or show “Retry failed. Audio file missing.” or “Retry failed. Audio file not found.”
Still stuck?
Once those settings have been confirmed, stop repeating language-selection or microphone troubleshooting: the issue may be a product-side language-identification mismatch.
The most useful next step is to report the exact affected transcript from its history entry. If you have already submitted sufficient examples, do not resubmit them; support can use the existing reports and should check the current status instead.
Note: Desktop transcript reports automatically include audio, raw and formatted text, selected languages, device details, and recent logs. Desktop audio expires after 14 days; later reports contain no audio, and Play and Extract audio are unavailable.
Open a report on Mac or Windows
The flag opens Report to Improve Model.
Open the Flow Hub's Home/history.
Click the flag beside the affected dictation.
Open a report on iPhone or Android
iPhone reports automatically include selected languages and device details.
Open the affected entry in History.
Use its Report or feedback option.
Describe what you said, what Flow transcribed, and what you've tried.
Include your platform, device and selected languages if they aren't sent automatically.
Send the report; on desktop, click Send feedback.
For a reply, visit the Help Center. General desktop support messages can include app logs and one image up to 10 MB.
A failed desktop transcript report shows an error and stays open for retry; an iPhone failure shows an alert. Neither copies your message. For signed-in users, a failed general desktop support message shows an error and copies the message to the clipboard so you can paste it into a support request and try again.
Oversized audio can prevent a desktop transcript report from sending. On iPhone, a report can fail before sending if the transcript cannot be uploaded. Try sending the report again.