On my Mac, I use Anki together with a software application called Rogue Amoeba Loopback.
I route Anki’s audio output into Loopback, and then set the Mac’s Keyboard Dictation microphone source to Loopback.
When Dictation is enabled in Anki’s edit screen, and I play an audio file embedded with an <audio> tag, the audio is transcribed into text by macOS Dictation.
I use this setup as a training method: if macOS Dictation can correctly recognize a native speaker’s audio file, I practice until my own pronunciation is also recognized correctly in the same way.
However, this works with the older version listed below, but no longer works with the newer version.
Does this mean that future versions will no longer support using Dictation in this way?
Version 25.02.5 (29192d15)
Python 3.9.18 Qt 6.6.2 PyQt 6.6.1
Version 25.09.2 (3890e12c)
Python 3.13.5 Qt 6.9.1 Chromium 122
I’ve never used Loopback, but I’ve used Soundflower in the past and understand what you are trying to do.
Have you checked to see if the audio output might be coming from a different process, perhaps python or mpv? (I get the vague impression that there might have been changes in some of the ways Anki appears process-wise between versions 25.02 and 25.09, but I’m not certain.)
I’m glad to find someone else doing something similar.
I found that Mac Dictation still works in the newer version, but its behavior is slightly different from the older version.
In the newer version, if I start Mac Dictation in an empty field, play a long audio clip using an audio tag, and then click the empty field again, Dictation starts working. However, this does not work in time for short sentences or single words.
So Dictation still works in the newer version, but the way text input is handled has changed slightly, and my previous method no longer works.
You might want to check whether having the Anki app play a low-volume, almost silent sound continuously might be a workaround. The idea would be to try to trick Dictation into listening continuously, hopefully allowing it to pick up on short audio clips. I don’t know if it will work, but it might be worth a try.
Some add-ons I found that play continuous background audio: