In this tutorial, we will build a speech to text dictation app using React Native. This app will allow users to speak into their device and have the words transcribed into text. We will be using the React Native Speech Recognition library to build this app.

![react native speech to text](https:&#x2F;&#x2F;devbrite.io&#x2F;media&#x2F;cover5.jpg)
## Prerequisites

Before we begin, you should have a basic understanding of React Native and JavaScript. You should also be familiar with the command line, as we will be using it to install dependencies and run our app.

## Creating a React Native Project

We will create our React Native project using the command line. To do this, we will use the &#96;react-native init&#96; command. This will create a project with the default name &#96;MyProject&#96;.

&#96;&#96;&#96;
$ react-native init MyProject
&#96;&#96;&#96;

Once the project has been created, you should see a folder named &#96;MyProject&#96; in your current directory. Change into this directory and open it in your favorite text editor.

## Installing Dependencies

We will be using the React Native Speech Recognition library to build our app. Install this library as a dependency in your project by running the following command.

&#96;&#96;&#96;
$ npm install react-native-speech-recognition --save
&#96;&#96;&#96;

## Building the UI

Now that we have our project set up and the dependencies installed, we can start building the UI for our app. We will start by creating a basic layout for our app.

Create a new file named &#96;App.js&#96; inside the &#96;MyProject&#96; directory and add the following code. This code will create a basic layout for our app with a button to start the voice recognition.

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
import React, { Component } from &#x27;react&#x27;;
import { View, Text, Button } from &#x27;react-native&#x27;;

export default class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      &lt;View style={styles.container}&gt;
        &lt;Text&gt;Speech to Text App&lt;&#x2F;Text&gt;
        &lt;Button 
          title=&quot;Start&quot;
          onPress={() =&gt; alert(&#x27;Start button pressed!&#x27;)}
        &#x2F;&gt;
      &lt;&#x2F;View&gt;
    );
  }
}

const styles = {
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: &#x27;center&#x27;,
    alignItems: &#x27;center&#x27;
  }
};
&#96;&#96;&#96;

## Integrating a Voice Recognition Library

Now that we have our basic UI set up, we can start integrating the React Native Speech Recognition library. 

Import the library at the top of your &#96;App.js&#96; file and add the following code to the &#96;render()&#96; method. This code will call the &#96;startSpeechRecognition()&#96; method when the button is pressed.

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
import SpeechRecognition from &#x27;react-native-speech-recognition&#x27;;

&#x2F;&#x2F; ...

render() {
  &#x2F;&#x2F; ...
  &lt;Button 
    title=&quot;Start&quot;
    onPress={this.startSpeechRecognition}
  &#x2F;&gt;
  &#x2F;&#x2F; ...
}

&#x2F;&#x2F; ...

startSpeechRecognition = async () =&gt; {
  try {
    const granted = await SpeechRecognition.requestPermission();
    if (granted) {
      console.log(&#x27;Permission granted!&#x27;);
    }
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(err);
  }
};
&#96;&#96;&#96;

## Building Voice Recognition in React Native

We can now start building out the voice recognition functionality. To do this, we will use the &#96;startSpeechRecognizer()&#96; method provided by the library. This method takes a number of arguments that you can find in the [documentation](https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;react-native-community&#x2F;react-native-speech-recognition#startspeachrecognizer).

Add the following code to the &#96;startSpeechRecognition()&#96; method to start the voice recognition.

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
startSpeechRecognition = async () =&gt; {
  try {
    const granted = await SpeechRecognition.requestPermission();
    if (granted) {
      console.log(&#x27;Permission granted!&#x27;);

      const speechRecognizer = SpeechRecognition.createSpeechRecognizer();
      speechRecognizer.onSpeechStart = () =&gt; {
        console.log(&#x27;Speech has started!&#x27;);
      }
      speechRecognizer.startSpeechRecognizer(
        {
          onResults: (result) =&gt; {
            console.log(&#x27;Speech has ended!&#x27;);
            console.log(result);
          }
        }
      );
    }
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(err);
  }
};
&#96;&#96;&#96;

This code will start the voice recognition when the button is pressed. It will log the results of the voice recognition to the console when the speech has ended.

## Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have built a speech to text dictation app using React Native and the React Native Speech Recognition library. We used the &#96;startSpeechRecognizer()&#96; method to start the voice recognition and log the results to the console.

I hope this tutorial has been helpful in understanding how to build a speech to text dictation app in React Native.

How to Build a Speech to Text Dictation App in React Native

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