I recently downloaded Smouldering Durtles and Swift Key. It seems like Durtles supports it but it doesn’t give me a hiragana answer when I voice my reviews out. It gives it in kanji. I modified it a bit according to its keyboard faqs. Before, it still gave me kanji. I was hoping I would make it work because I want to give my hands a break. I haven’t received a proper diagnosis yet but it might be RSI. I tried this out: [Userscript] Voice Input using Web Speech API but it didn’t work (both FireFox and Chrome). I used refresh method. So that leaves me to my question; has anyone been successful in making durtles work with voice input?
There is this. I don’t know if it works and it requires a fee. So perhaps it is not suitable for you.
Thanks, I gave it a look and according to the user Antik, “Do not pay for this service - it seems it’s completely abandoned by the developers and is left in a non-functioning state. Neither reviews nor lessons work using voice commands.”
Unfortunate, it looked cool!
hi, i’m the author of the linked userscript. since you mentioned Smouldering Durtles and Swift Key i wonder if you were trying the userscript on mobile or on desktop? it has only been tested on desktop Chrome (Firefox and many other browsers do not support the web speech API that it relies on) but it still works for me (i just tested it to be sure). if you are trying to use it on desktop there must be something else going on. the first step would be to try this demo and see if that works for you
Hi, thanks! I’ll be sure to update
Edit: Forgot to mention I was using the userscript on desktop.
I think I know what my problem is. I need an actual mic. My voice input was my speakers and my output is my sceptre f24. My speakers are the output but I don’t have a mic so I was playing around with my speakers to see if I could figure something out but I just keep getting: “No speech was detected. You may need to adjust your microphone settings” and “please check your microphone and audio levels”.
I’ve been looking through older posts suggesting various external solutions/scripts etc. but still no easy solution that generally makes oral input possible. Ok the simplest one is of course to switch to anki mode and read out loud… But that’s not really how I’d use this great learning tool.!
Now considering the state of technology in 2026, dictation feature shouldn’t be too far in my ears. Dictation is working pretty good now and is integrated across devices and platforms. But most of the services would provide ready text, AKA kanji, never hira/katakana.
What if wanikani could just benefit from the existing dictation possibility, by accepting answers input as kanji? That wouldn’t demand any real developing other than adding the questions into the answers field..
This would only work on vocab. As for the kanjis it could either be added a “similar sounding” kanji as an allowed reading, or by making it possible for users to add “custom reading”, like I can add synonyms, allowing to set one or more kanji. Maybe not the smartest solution, but only having the vocab possibility would anyway make it doable to practice pronunciation of real words, as well as speeding up my reviews input.
The possibility of voice input could be a great improvement, not only of the service, but also it would increase learning, by practicing words. Eventually everyone has to know the pronunciation anyway!