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NicolSD's avatar
NicolSD
Steel Contributor
May 15, 2019

Edge can't use the mic in the Google Translate page

Edge Canary and Dev don't seem to know how to use a microphone. I tried the following steps both on a workstation connected to a Logitech's Brio webcam's microphone, and a Surface Pro 4 using the bui...
  • florianSB's avatar
    florianSB
    Jan 13, 2020
    My guess is that all these Tools use the WebSpeechApi which only works on Google Chrome/Chromium (at least the recognition part) because Google uses it's own cloud servers for the audio transcription. Since the new Edge is basically Chromium it probably thinks that the WebSpeechApi is supported and breaks. The API behaves very strange currently in Edge.
Bannykjk775's avatar
Bannykjk775
Copper Contributor

NicolSD You're right, and it really is an issue for me while learning a foreign language with Duolingo. I believe it will also be a problem for some people who need to use voice input, but Windows' speech-to-text doesn't support their native language.

 

We're in dev channel version 76.0.172.0 now, and this problem still persists.

I did a bit of testing and find out the problem isn't about mic input, but about voice recognition.

For example, if you use an online voice recorder, like the service below, it does work and record your voice:

https://online-voice-recorder.com/

 

But when you use any voice recognition service, like Google voice search, Google Translate or the speech to text service below, it doesn't work:

https://speechnotes.co/

 

Both the links above work fine in Google Chrome. I tried changing Edge's user agent to Chrome, and it still doesn't work.

Let's hope Microsoft will fix this issue before the stable version comes out.

florianSB's avatar
florianSB
Brass Contributor
Jan 13, 2020
My guess is that all these Tools use the WebSpeechApi which only works on Google Chrome/Chromium (at least the recognition part) because Google uses it's own cloud servers for the audio transcription. Since the new Edge is basically Chromium it probably thinks that the WebSpeechApi is supported and breaks. The API behaves very strange currently in Edge.
  • florianSB's avatar
    florianSB
    Brass Contributor
    Sep 21, 2020

    netplaceus 

    Google primarily wants people to use their search engine and services, if thats done with Chrome ... even better for them, but they usually don't explicitly "block" a feature if that makes one of their services harder to use.

    Chrome is still the only browser that fully supports speech recognition via the web speech API and its up to the website developer to use feature detection to properly implement it. Unfortunately if they don't it will look like a browser bug. At least Microsoft Edge finally sends a correct error message and they said that they want to fix this issue this month allegedly by implementing ASR properly so I guess we'll see the result soon ^^.

  • netplaceus's avatar
    netplaceus
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 11, 2020

    florianSB Your right, but I believe the reason is This:  

    In my opinion there is nothing wrong, it is not a bug that the ONLY browser that can access Google translate and Google voice search is the google browser Chrome. Don't be naive, what would you expect Microsoft to say? Yeah, right, it's a bug. The microphone will work just fine with non-Google services. Seriously, Microsoft (and the others) have a HUGH incentive to fix this problem (if they could) or lose browser popularity and Google has every incentive to BLOCK that functionality to keep you around using Chrome services they pay for and developed. Microsoft Edge microphone works fine with BING! 
  • TripsterAzure5200's avatar
    TripsterAzure5200
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 22, 2020

    Hey, after having the same issue and not getting a real answer THANK YOU. Your response makes the most sense to me, I appreciate your answer and details given. I sensed the mic was working in Edge but it was not giving a result as if it just hit a wall so your answer makes a lot of sense to me. Much appreciated. :cool:

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