Help Lost voice to text

[hstroph]

Greetings, I apparently "pocket-dialed" a bunch of gibberish on my Nexus 6P, and lost the voice-to-text capability. The little microphone icon at the top right of the English QWERTY keyboard is no longer there.

How do I recover the voice-to-text capability, please?

 

[MoodyBlues]

The little microphone icon at the top right of the English QWERTY keyboard is

Are you using the stock keyboard, i.e., Gboard? If so, press its settings button (the gear icon), then go down to 'Voice typing,' and turn 'Use voice typing' on. Does that fix it?

 

[hstroph]

I believe I am using Gboard, as play.google.com says that it's installed, but I don't find it in the apps list on the phone. However, here's what I see:

 

[MoodyBlues]

I don't normally use Gboard (I use Hacker's Keyboard), and I don't know why you're missing its settings icon, which should be there:

as in the top row of my screenshot. But it doesn't matter.

From System Settings, as in your screenshot, under Languages & input, press Virtual keyboard, then Gboard, and proceed as above, i.e., select Voice typing and turn it on:

Does that fix it?

 

[hstroph]

Yes, "Voice typing" has always been enabled, exactly as in the image you posted, but the top row of the normal keyboard which includes the microphone icon, has been missing for about the past month.

I had a few "pocket dial" mishaps and must've somehow changed the keyboard layout, but I can't figure out how to restore it.

[edit] I installed and configured the "Hacker's Keyboatd" as suggested, and now have the voice typing microphone on the keyboard, thank you. I just wish I understood what happened to the GBoard keyboard. [/edit]

 

[MoodyBlues]

I installed and configured the "Hacker's Keyboatd" as suggested, and now have the voice typing microphone on the keyboard, thank you.

You're welcome.

Now that you're using Hacker's, be sure to explore its settings. You can make it look, feel and sound the way you like.

This is how I've configured my current look. First, the standard keyboard:

and then the extended keyboard, which you switch to via its [Fn] key:

The whole idea behind Hacker's is to replicate a real, computer keyboard as closely as possible.

I just wish I understood what happened to the GBoard keyboard

I hear you. It's frustrating when you don't know what happened when something gets messed up.

You can easily switch back and forth from Hacker's to Gboard--you should see a tiny keyboard icon at the bottom of your screen, next to Android's standard navigation buttons; use that to choose from a list of installed keyboards.

You can safely play with Gboard's settings until you find the problem, just for the fun of it or if you prefer it to Hacker's.