← Back to release summary

Web Speech API: Unspoken Punctuation

Category
Miscellaneous
Type
New or changed feature
Status
Proposed (Chrome Proposed)
Intent stage
None

Summary

Adds the unspokenPunctuation boolean attribute to the SpeechRecognition interface of the Web Speech API. When enabled (true), this attribute directs the speech recognition engine to automatically infer and insert punctuation marks (such as periods, commas, and question marks) based on the user's natural pauses, grammatical structure, and prosody, without requiring explicit spoken punctuation commands.

Motivation

Currently, developers building voice-enabled web applications—such as casual dictation tools, automated transcription services, or conversational assistants—receive raw, unpunctuated text streams from the Web Speech API. To make this text readable and polished, developers are often forced to implement and maintain complex downstream NLP models to infer basic formatting. Additionally, from an end-user perspective, having to explicitly dictate punctuation (e.g., stopping to say "comma" or "period") disrupts the natural flow of continuous speech and significantly increases cognitive load. Introducing the unspokenPunctuation attribute solves this by moving automatic, prosody-aware punctuation directly into the browser's speech recognition engine. This provides an intuitive, conversational voice typing experience for users out-of-the-box, while dramatically lowering the barrier to entry for developers building voice-driven web apps.

Standards & signals

Samples: https://speech.evanliu.com

Explainers: https://github.com/WebAudio/web-speech-api/blob/main/explainers/unspoken-punctuation.md

View on chromestatus.com