Speech Recognition in React Native: Complete 2025 Guide

🚀 Best-in-class Voice AI!

Build compliant and low-latency AI applications using React Native without sending user data to 3rd party servers.

From Siri to Google Assistant, mobile voice interfaces have become a standard feature in modern mobile apps: Voice commands, dictation, hands-free voice activation… Voice AI lets users interact naturally—without typing or tapping.

This complete guide walks through key speech recognition concepts, available speech recognition options supporting React Native, how to implement speech recognition in React Native, and how to build a fully on-device voice system using Picovoice.

Why on-device speech recognition matters:

Privacy: Audio never leaves the device, ensuring HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA compliance
Speed: No network latency, instant processing
Reliability: Guaranteed response time even in remote areas with poor reception

Learn more about why and when you should choose voice AI on the edge over the cloud, and facts about on-device speech recognition with cloud quality.

Understanding Speech Recognition Approaches

Speech recognition can refer to different technologies and capabilities:

Hands-free Activation with Wake Word Detection

Wake Word Detection continuously monitors audio for specific trigger phrases like "Hey Siri", activating the app only when detected. It's essential for battery-efficient, hands-free voice interfaces.

Wake Word Detection Alternatives for Developers: Picovoice Porcupine, Snowboy (legacy), custom TensorFlow Lite models…

Learn the nuances of benchmarking wake word engines and how to verify wake word benchmarks.

Voice Command Understanding with Intent Recognition

Speech-to-Intent directly infers user intent from speech without intermediate transcription. It's optimized for voice-controlled navigation, industrial voice assistants, and app shortcuts. Other Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) systems first convert speech to text using Automatic Speech Recognition and extract intent using Natural Language Understanding (NLU).

Intent Recognition Alternatives for Developers: Amazon Lex, Google Dialogflow, IBM Watson, Microsoft Bot Framework, Picovoice Rhino Speech-to-Intent…

Check the differences between conventional and modern approaches to spoken language understanding and compare voice command acceptance rates of Dialogflow, Lex, Watson, and Rhino.

Real-time Transcription with Streaming Speech-to-Text

Streaming Speech-to-Text processes audio continuously as users speak, providing immediate text output. It's ideal for voice assistants, live captioning, and real-time dictation.

Real-time Speech-to-Text Alternatives for Developers: Amazon Transcribe Streaming, Google Speech-to-Text Streaming, Azure STT Real-time, Picovoice Cheetah Streaming Speech-to-Text…

Evaluate real-time transcription engines' Word Accuracy, Punctuation Accuracy, and Word Emission Latency before choosing the right one for your application, and see our React Native Speech-to-Text tutorial.

Async Transcription with Batch Speech-to-Text

Async transcription processes complete audio recordings after the recording is completed. It's ideal for archive management, legal documentation, and audio file processing.

Async Transcription Alternatives for Developers: GCP Speech-to-Text, OpenAI Whisper, Azure Speech, Amazon Transcribe, Picovoice Leopard Speech-to-Text…

Audio Capture and Processing

Audio Processing tools capture and stream raw audio from the microphone to the speech engine as a first step of speech recognition.

Audio Processor Alternatives for Developers: react-native-audio, react-native-voice, Picovoice VoiceProcessor…

Advantages and Challenges of Building Speech Recognition in React Native

React Native is a powerful cross-platform framework built on JavaScript. It allows developers to use a single codebase to create iOS and Android apps.

Advantages:

Cross-platform development: One codebase for iOS and Android.
Large ecosystem: Many open-source libraries for audio, ML, and APIs.
Rapid iteration: Hot reload and fast build cycles for experimentation.
Native access: JavaScript can bridge directly to native SDKs.

Challenges:

Performance: The JavaScript bridge can create latency with real-time audio.
Permissions: Managing microphone access varies across platforms.
Background processing: Handling always-listening features needs native service configuration and adoption of OS restrictions.

For production-grade voice apps, it's often best to use optimized native SDKs that minimize JavaScript overhead. However, it's not easy to find them. If you've searched for React Native speech recognition solutions, you may have encountered a fragmented landscape of cloud APIs, abandoned libraries, and incomplete implementations.

The Current State of React Native Speech Recognition in 2025

Cloud-Based Speech Recognition Solutions (AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft)

Cloud-Based Speech Recognition processes voice data in remote servers, introduces network latency (100-500ms), raises privacy concerns, and creates performance issues in remote locations with poor reception. Furthermore, most popular ones do not offer React Native support for their products, requiring additional bridge code. Amazon Transcribe, Amazon Lex, Google Speech-to-Text, Google Dialogflow, IBM Watson SDKs, Microsoft Azure Speech-to-Text, and Microsoft Bot Framework SDK are examples of speech recognition libraries with no React Native support. These platforms do not offer (publicly available) wake word detection support either.

react-native-voice

react-native-voice is a popular community library wrapping for platform-specific APIs. It's limited to platform capabilities, requires the internet for most features, and may have inconsistent behavior across iOS and Android. No custom vocabulary or wake word support.

Picovoice On-device Voice AI Platform

Picovoice is currently the only comprehensive, on-device voice AI solution with official React Native support. Offers four engines optimized for different capabilities:

Porcupine Wake Word: Custom wake word detection
Rhino Speech-to-Intent: Language understanding for voice command and control
Cheetah Streaming Speech-to-Text: Real-time transcription
Leopard Speech-to-Text: Async, batch speech-to-text transcription

This guide focuses on Picovoice on-device voice AI stack because it's the only solution that combines:

Full React Native support (iOS & Android)
Custom wake word training in seconds
Custom voice command and control
Custom speech-to-text vocabulary
Lightweight and accurate on-device voice AI stack
Active maintenance and documentation
Industry-leading accuracy and performance

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

Android (5.0+, API 21+)
iOS (13.0+)
React Native 0.63+
Picovoice AccessKey

Choosing the Right Voice AI Solution for React Native Apps

Adding Wake Word Detection to React Native Apps

Best for: Hands-free activation, always-on listening, voice assistant triggers

When to use: Enable hands-free activation by detecting custom phrases like "Hey Siri". Preserves battery by only processing audio after the trigger phrase is detected.

import { PorcupineManager, BuiltInKeywords } from '@picovoice/porcupine-react-native';

const porcupineManager = await PorcupineManager.fromBuiltInKeywords(
  "${ACCESS_KEY}",
  [BuiltInKeywords.PORCUPINE, BuiltInKeywords.BUMBLEBEE],
  (keywordIndex) => {
    if (keywordIndex === 0) {
      // detected `porcupine`
    } else if (keywordIndex === 1) {
      // detected `bumblebee`
    }
  }
);

await porcupineManager.start();

See our complete guide on wake word detection in React Native to enable hands-free activation and add custom wake words to React Native applications.

Adding Voice Control to React Native Apps

Best for: Voice commands, voice picking, app navigation

When to use: Understand voice commands by inferring intents and intent details from user utterances. It's perfect for short, command-style interactions such as "Play jazz music" or "Set a timer for five minutes."

import { RhinoManager, RhinoInference } from '@picovoice/rhino-react-native';

const rhinoManager = await RhinoManager.create(
  "${ACCESS_KEY}",
  "${CONTEXT_FILE_PATH}",
  (inference: RhinoInference) => {
    if (inference.isUnderstood) {
      // take action based on inferred intent and slot values
      console.log(inference.intent);
      console.log(inference.slots);
    }
  },
);

await rhinoManager.process();

See React Native speech-to-intent tutorial for detailed implementation.

Adding Real-time Transcription to React Native Apps

Best for: Live transcription, agentic AI applications, real-time captioning

When to use: Need immediate transcription as users speak. Perfect for voice assistants, live captions, and real-time dictation.

import { Cheetah } from '@picovoice/cheetah-react-native';

const cheetah = await Cheetah.create(
  "${ACCESS_KEY}",
  "${CHEETAH_MODEL_PATH}",
)

while (isRecording) {
  const partialResult = await cheetah.process(getAudioFrame())
  transcript += partialResult.transcript
}

See React Native speech-to-text tutorial for detailed implementation.

Adding Batch Transcription to React Native Apps

Best for: Audio file transcription, voice memos, meeting recordings

When to use: Translation of transferred audio files and pre-recorded documents.

import { Leopard } from '@picovoice/leopard-react-native';

const leopard = await Leopard.create(
  "${ACCESS_KEY}",
  "${LEOPARD_MODEL_PATH}",
)

const { transcript, words } = await leopard.processFile(
  "${AUDIO_FILE_PATH}"
)

Recording and Processing Audio in React Native

Best for: Managing streaming and frame handling to feed audio data to speech recognition engines

import { VoiceProcessor } from '@picovoice/react-native-voice-processor';

voiceProcessor.addFrameListener((frame: number[]) => {
  // use audio frame
});

if (await voiceProcessor.hasRecordAudioPermission()) {
  await voiceProcessor.start(frameLength, sampleRate);
}

await voiceProcessor.stop()

Building a Complete Voice Assistant

Voice AI workflow showing Porcupine Wake Word detecting custom wake word "Hey Pico", Rhino Speech-to-Intent detecting speaker's intent "Text Mom", and Cheetah Streaming Speech-to-Text dictating the text message: "I'm on my way."

With all components in place, the full flow looks like this:

React Native Voice Processor captures live audio
Porcupine Wake Word listens for custom wake words, such as "Hey Siri" and/or "Hey Pico"
Rhino Speech-to-Intent interprets the commands, such as "Text Mom"
Cheetah Streaming Speech-to-Text transcribes utterances in real time, such as "I'm on my way."

The app executes the recognized action or displays text. This stack runs fully offline and requires no cloud connection—ideal for privacy-focused or latency-sensitive real-time applications.

React-Native Speech Recognition Production Deployment Checklist

Review this checklist before releasing a voice-enabled React Native app:

Performance

Test on low-end iOS and Android devices
Monitor battery usage during typical sessions
Verify latency meets requirements
Test with background noise

User Experience

Show visual feedback when listening and thinking
Provide feedback for "not understood" cases
Include a voice command tutorial, teaching end-users what they can do

Privacy & Compliance

Communicate on-device processing and data handling transparently in simple terms
Implement data retention policies
Document audio handling in privacy policy

Resource Management

Always call .delete() after stopping the speech recognition engine if it is no longer required
Test memory usage over extended periods

Common Speech Recognition Issues in React Native Apps and Solutions

Implementation of speech recognition systems affects the performance of engines and products. Leverage Picovoice Professional Services should you need help with integrating speech recognition into React Native applications.

Permission Denied Error

Verify microphone permission is requested and granted
iOS: Check that Info.plist has the NSMicrophoneUsageDescription key
Android: Check that AndroidManifest.xml has the RECORD_AUDIO tag

Poor Transcription Accuracy

Test in a quieter environment to troubleshoot
Create custom vocabulary for domain terms
Implement Voice Activity Detection

High Battery Usage

Don't use speech-to-text or cloud-based systems for wake word detection
Use Rhino for voice commands, rather than the STT+NLU combination when possible
Stop engines when not needed

Common React Native Speech Recognition Use Cases

Developers use React Native and Picovoice on-device voice AI stack to build:

Voice AI agents and co-pilots
Smart home controllers and IoT apps
Voice-enabled accessibility tools
Note-taking and dictation apps
Hands-free mobile assistants
Industrial and field applications

Resources

Documentation

Tutorials

Demos

Conclusion

Speech recognition transforms React Native apps into voice-enabled experiences. However, the lack of official React Native support, poorly developed JavaScript bridges can create latency in real-time audio processing. With Picovoice's official React Native SDKs, enterprises get access to a complete on-device voice AI platform, Porcupine for wake words, Cheetah for real-time transcription, and Rhino for voice commands without sacrificing efficiency, reliability, accuracy, and privacy. Developers can build production-ready React Native voice interfaces in under an hour.

Key takeaways:

Choose the right speech recognition technology for your application
On-device processing provides privacy, speed, and offline functionality
Custom vocabulary and intents improve accuracy for your domain
Combine engines for complete voice assistant experiences

Start building voice-enabled React Native apps with a free Picovoice account.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can React Native apps handle real-time speech recognition?

Yes. React Native can handle real-time speech recognition by using native SDKs such as Picovoice's Cheetah Streaming Speech-to-Text or platform APIs like Google's Speech-to-Text.

What is the best way to add a wake word in a React Native app?

The most reliable option to add a wake word to React Native apps is using Porcupine, Picovoice's wake word engine. It runs locally on both iOS and Android, listening for a custom phrase like "Hey App" or "Hey Nova" without sending data to the cloud.

Does speech recognition work offline in React Native?

It depends on the solution. Cloud services require a network connection to process voice data in the cloud. On the other hand, all Picovoice engines process voice data entirely offline. Picovoice uses the internet only to verify the AccessKey in order to offer its services according to your plan limits.

Can I train a custom wake word or voice command model?

Yes. The easiest way to train custom wake word and voice command models is to use Picovoice Console. It provides tools for training and testing custom models without writing ML code.

What are the main use cases for speech recognition in React Native?

Developers use speech recognition for smart home apps, accessibility features, offline note-taking, voice assistants, and industrial tools that must work even in remote locations without jeopardizing privacy.

React Native Speech Recognition in 2025: The Complete Guide