The Web Speech API is a JavaScript Web Speech API Specification, published by the Speech API Community Group, that outlines a possible way that browser vendors could eventually make speech recognition and speech synthesis available to in their browsers.
Currently, support for the Web Speech API among browsers is as follows:
| Browser | Web Speech API Support |
|---|---|
| Internet Explorer | Not supported |
| Microsoft Edge | Not supported |
| Mozilla Firefox | Under consideration. Currently only supports speech synthesis. |
| Google Chrome | Supported |
| Safari | Not supported |
| Opera | Not supported |
| iOS Safari | Not supported |
| Chrome for iOS | Not supported |
| Chrome for Android | Supported, but buggy. |
Why does Web Captioner require Google Chrome?
Web Captioner uses Google Chrome's implementation of the Web Speech API for quick, accurate speech recognition. Google Chrome is the only browser that currently implements the Web Speech API. Because I believe Web Captioner will be used mostly in environments where users have control over their browser choice (instead of a restricted enterprise environment, for example), and because Google Chrome is a modern browser with wide adoption, I’ve decided to focus my development efforts on making Web Captioner work great in Google Chrome.
Furthermore, if other browsers eventually implement this API, there is no guarantee that the speech-to-text engine they use will be as accurate as the one Google Chrome uses. They may, for example, use the same speech-to-text engine provided natively by the operating system the browser is running on.