With dictation enabled in Speech SDK 1.46 for Android, when transcribing a video, period and comma punctuations are missing from the output

Question

Hi,

We originally integrated Azure Speech SDK for Android v1.25.0 to transcribe audio with punctuations in 2023 per (we used enableDictation).

Then in November 2025 we updated to the latest available Azure Speech SDK for Android to satisfy Google's 16Kb mem page size requirement.

We noticed the latest Azure Speech SDK for Android v1.46.0, with dictation enabled (speechconfig.enableDictation()), the DisplayText result is missing punctuations (commas, periods) between sentences. We did a search online and found similar to an issue/bug reported by another developer for JS in May 2025: microsoft/cognitive-services-speech-sdk-js#920 (comment)

Per Azure release history, a fix (patch) for this punctuation bug was made in v 1.44.1 (only patched for JS) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/speech-service/releasenotes?tabs=speech-sdk#speech-sdk-1441-patch-release

Now, from Azure's Speech SDK release notes, Azure Speech SDK implemented support for Google's 16Kb mem page requirement in v1.44.0, therefore we have to use a Speech SDK version >= v1.44.0 to satisfy Google's 16Kb mem page requirement for our Android app to be approved by Google Play https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/speech-service/releasenotes?tabs=speech-sdk#speech-sdk-144-2025-may-release

We already checked all Azure Speech SDK versions from 1.44.0 to 1.46.0 and observed for all, with dictation enabled, the DisplayText is missing punctuations (commas, periods) between sentences.

These are the versions we checked:

Speech SDK 1.44.0

Speech SDK 1.45.0

Speech SDK 1.46.0

Below is a comparison of the DisplayText for Azure Speech SDK 1.25.0 and 1.46.0 as an example - you will see periods and commas between sentences are missing in the v1.46.0 transcription DisplayText results:

Speech SDK 1.25.0 results (periods and commas exist between sentences):

com.microsoft.cognitiveservices.speech:client-sdk:1.25.0 { "Id": "f2823a31afaa4906809ce5dd9e257b52", "RecognitionStatus": "Success", "Offset": 40200000, "Duration": 294600000, "Channel": 0, "DisplayText": "As rough as they could get right now. I just want to hug the country. Last week we had record-breaking numbers with over 3 million people filing. That number has surged to over 6,000,000 this week. So for people who are saying, you know, we already saw the worst now loans are coming, people aren't losing their jobs. That's just not the case. 6,000,000, that's a massive number. Before we saw three million last week. The week before to put it in perspective was just 200,000, so I know.", ...

Speech SDK 1.46.0 results (periods and commas are missing between sentences):

com.microsoft.cognitiveservices.speech:client-sdk:1.46.0:

{ "Id": "0621b5c9de54429885fa752e84898a44", "RecognitionStatus": "Success", "Offset": 40200000, "Duration": 294600000, "Channel": 0, "DisplayText": "As rough as they could get right now I just want to hug the country last week we had record-breaking numbers with over 3 million people filing that number has surged to over 6,000,000 this week so for people who are saying you know we already saw the worst now loans are coming people aren't losing their jobs that's just not the case 6,000,000 that's a massive number before we saw three million last week the week before to put it in perspective was just 200,000 so I know", ...

We are waiting for a resolution for this issue for Azure Speech SDK for Android. We hope the next Android SDK release can have a fix for this issue. Kindly let us know if you need any more information from us.

Thank you

Andrew

Answer 1

Hi itu,

Thanks for raising this issue. From your description, when using Speech SDK for Android version 1.46.0 with speechConfig.enableDictation() enabled, you’ve observed that punctuation (periods and commas) is missing from the DisplayText result, whereas it worked correctly in version 1.25.0.

It appears that in versions 1.44.0 through 1.46.0, the dictation mode may not properly apply punctuation rules (commas, periods) in the transcription output. This seems to be a regression compared to earlier versions. You’re correct to note the matching bug discussion for the JS SDK which had a similar issue.

Next steps:

• As a temporary workaround, you might revert to version 1.25.0 (where punctuation worked) if feasible, until the issue is resolved.

Monitor the release notes for future SDK updates (post 1.46.0) to see when the fix for dictation punctuation is released.

• In your code, you could also post-process the DisplayText to insert punctuation heuristically (though not ideal).
• Watch for updates in the Speech SDK release notes the fix may be included in an upcoming release.

You’re correct that the punctuation missing behavior is abnormal under dictation mode and likely a bug/regression in the Android SDK versions 1.44.0–1.46.0. Until an SDK patch is released, using an earlier version or applying a post-processing step is a valid interim approach.

If you need any further assistance or run into any issues during the cleanup, please don’t hesitate to reach out I’ll be happy to help.

Thankyou!