SpeechAnalyzer Framework

Use the API surface in the project’s installed SDK. This guide is compatibility-first for the stable Xcode 26.6 / iOS 26.5 SDK and does not substitute later beta conveniences into a 26-target implementation.

Compatibility baseline

• SpeechAnalyzer, SpeechTranscriber, AssetInventory, and AnalyzerInput require iOS 26, macOS 26, visionOS 26, or tvOS 26. They are unavailable on watchOS.
• DictationTranscriber is available on iOS 26, macOS 26, and visionOS 26, but not tvOS/watchOS.
• Build these APIs with Xcode 26 or newer. A lower deployment target requires an availability gate and a legacy or disabled-feature path.
• SpeechTranscriber.isAvailable is hardware-sensitive. An OS version check alone is insufficient.
• The live microphone example is iOS-only because it configures AVAudioSession and requests record permission.
• If an SDK 27 beta offers helpers such as capture/input providers or converter types, keep those declarations in a beta-SDK-only source path, add the relevant #available(iOS 27, macOS 27, ...) runtime gate, and retain the 26 implementation. A stable 26 compiler cannot resolve an unknown symbol merely because it appears inside #available.

Do not hardcode a language count. Query locale support on the running device.

Stable setup sequence

1. Check SpeechTranscriber.isAvailable.
2. Resolve user input with SpeechTranscriber.supportedLocale(equivalentTo:); exact Locale equality can reject a usable regional equivalent.
3. Reserve the resolved locale with AssetInventory.reserve(locale:) when the app owns that reservation.
4. Create a transcriber for the resolved locale.
5. Obtain AssetInventory.assetInstallationRequest(supporting:) and await downloadAndInstall() when it returns a request.
6. Guard the optional result of SpeechAnalyzer.bestAvailableAudioFormat(compatibleWith:) before installing an audio path.
7. Create SpeechAnalyzer, supply AnalyzerInput values, and consume transcriber.results in tracked structured work.
8. End input and await an analyzer finish method. Finishing an AsyncStream alone does not finish analysis.
9. Await the result consumer, then release only the locale reservation this operation created.

There is no SpeechTranscriber.allocate(locale:) in the stable 26 SDK. Locale reservation is an AssetInventory responsibility.

Read examples/basic_setup.swift for a scoped preparation helper that releases its reservation on success and failure.

Assets and progress

AssetInventory.reserve(locale:) returns true when it created a new app reservation and false when that locale was already reserved. Release only reservations the current owner created; do not tear down another feature’s reservation. Respect maximumReservedLocales and expose an explicit release action.

AssetInstallationRequest conforms to ProgressReporting. Its progress property is Foundation Progress, not an AsyncSequence. Pass the object to UI/observation code or inspect fractionCompleted; never write for try await over it.

Read examples/locale_manager.swift for equivalence lookup, explicit reservation ownership, installation, Foundation Progress handoff, and release.

Results

The element type is SpeechTranscriber.Result. Use:

• result.text for the most likely AttributedString;
• String(result.text.characters) when plain text is required;
• result.alternatives only when alternative reporting was configured;
• result.isFinal to distinguish final from volatile output;
• result.range and configured attributes when reconciling time-indexed text.

There is no SpeechTranscriptionResult type and no result.transcription property in the stable 26 SDK.

When volatile reporting is enabled, replace the current volatile segment rather than repeatedly appending it. Append finalized text once. For editors that can receive overlapping ranges, reconcile by result.range instead of assuming a single volatile phrase.

Read examples/error_handling.swift for typed validation errors and correct result accumulation.

Lifecycle and concurrency

• Store any unstructured result-consumer task and cancel/await it during teardown. Prefer async let or a task group for finite file transcription.
• After ending input, call finalizeAndFinishThroughEndOfInput() to drain and finalize, or cancelAndFinishNow() when results are no longer needed.
• Propagate setup and finite-analysis errors to the awaiting caller. Surface later live-stream failures through explicit state/callbacks rather than throwing inside an unobserved task.
• Guard concurrent starts while permission prompts or model installation are pending.
• Keep audio callbacks away from MainActor state. Capture a dedicated synchronized feeder and hop to the main actor only for UI/error delivery.
• Do not mark AVFoundation types @unchecked Sendable without a concrete synchronization/ownership invariant.

Live microphone transcription

An iOS host app needs both:

• NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription
• NSMicrophoneUsageDescription

Request speech and microphone authorization before starting the engine. Configure and activate the app’s AVAudioSession according to the broader audio policy; the sample owns a record-only measurement session and deactivates it on stop. Apps that mix playback, calls, or other recorders need a central session coordinator.

Install the tap only after obtaining a nonoptional analyzer format. Remove the tap, stop the engine, finish input, finalize/cancel the analyzer, await the result task, deactivate the session, and release the owned reservation on every stop/failure path.

Read these two files together:

• examples/live_transcription.swift: permissions, audio session, engine, tracked task, finalization, and reservation lifecycle.
• examples/buffer_converter.swift: synchronized converter recreation when either input or output format changes.

The sample feeder performs bounded conversion in the audio tap and never touches UI-isolated state. Profile this path on supported devices. A production recorder with stricter real-time requirements should use a preallocated/ring-buffer architecture appropriate to its latency budget.

Audio-file transcription

File analysis does not need microphone permission or an iOS audio session. Prepare assets, open AVAudioFile, start analysis with finishAfterFile: true, and consume results with structured concurrency.

Read examples/file_transcription.swift. Invoke it inside withPreparedSpeechTranscriber from the basic example so reservation ownership stays scoped.

Fallback and migration

• If SpeechTranscriber.isAvailable is false, disable the feature or evaluate DictationTranscriber on supported platforms and query its locale support separately.
• Keep SFSpeechRecognizer only behind a deliberate lower-OS or feature-gap adapter; its authorization, request, result, and network behavior differ.
• Treat migration from Whisper as a product decision: verify supported locale, device hardware, offline behavior, timestamps, custom vocabulary, model/storage policy, latency, and quality on representative audio.
• Out-of-process models reduce model memory in the app process; they do not eliminate the app’s memory limits or the cost of buffers, transcript state, and tasks.

Review checklist

• Deployment target, SDK, device availability, and locale equivalence are checked.
• Only stable installed APIs are used on the 26 path.
• A created reservation is released; an existing shared reservation is preserved.
• Progress is observed as Foundation Progress.
• Optional audio format is guarded.
• Results use SpeechTranscriber.Result.text and preserve AttributedString when useful.
• Input finish is followed by analyzer finalization/cancellation.
• Result work is stored or structured and all errors have an owner.
• Live capture includes usage descriptions, permission requests, session activation/deactivation, tap removal, and repeated-start protection.
• Audio conversion handles route/input-format changes and does not access main-actor UI state from the tap.

Supporting material

• README.md summarizes platforms and integration requirements.
• examples/basic_setup.swift scopes model preparation and reservation release.
• examples/locale_manager.swift manages locale assets and Progress.
• examples/error_handling.swift handles results and validation failures.
• examples/file_transcription.swift performs finite file analysis.
• examples/live_transcription.swift and examples/buffer_converter.swift form the live iOS example.
• examples/prompts.md contains representative activation prompts.