On Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 7:24:52 PM UTC+2 Chromestatus wrote:

*Contact emails*
[email protected]

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

*Specification*
https://webaudio.github.io/web-speech-api 

*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. 

*Blink component*
Blink>Speech 
<https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3ESpeech%22>

*Web Feature ID*
speech-recognition <https://webstatus.dev/features/speech-recognition> 

*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. 

*Initial public proposal*
*No information provided*

*TAG review*
*No information provided* 

*TAG review status*
Not applicable

*Goals for experimentation*
None 

*Risks*


*Interoperability and Compatibility*
*No information provided* 

*Gecko*: Positive (https://github.com/WebAudio/web-speech-api/
issues/187#issuecomment-4479796822)

*WebKit*: No signal


Can you file standard positions for both Mozilla and WebKit? 


*Web developers*: No signals


Any signals for developers?
 


*Other signals*:

*Ergonomics*
N/A

*Activation*
N/A

*Security*
N/A

*WebView application risks*

Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that 
it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications? 
N/A, Not supported on Android 


*Debuggability*
None required. 

*Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, 
Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?*
No 
On-device Web Speech is only supported on Mac, Windows, and Linux. 

*Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests 
<https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?*
Yes 


*Flag name on about://flags*
*No information provided* 

*Finch feature name*
WebSpeechUnspokenPunctuation 

*Rollout plan*
Will ship enabled for all users

*Requires code in //chrome?*
True

*Tracking bug*
https://bugs.chromium.org/b/514764702

*Measurement*
N/A

*Adoption expectation*
Feature is used by specific partner (Google Meet) to provide functionality 
within 12 months of launch in Chrome.

*Estimated milestones*
Shipping on desktop151 DevTrial on desktop150 

*Anticipated spec changes*

Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or 
interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues 
in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may 
introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of 
the API in a non-backward-compatible way). 
https://github.com/WebAudio/web-speech-api/pull/188/changes#diff-
5e793325cd2bfc452e268a4aa2f02b4024dd9584bd1db3c2595f61f1ecf7b985

*Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status*
https://chromestatus.com/feature/4785284026859520?gate=4835184634626048

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status 
<https://chromestatus.com>. 

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