amharic_stt

On-device Amharic (am-ET) speech-to-text for Flutter — a thin, typed wrapper over each platform's native speech recognizer (Android SpeechRecognizer, iOS SFSpeechRecognizer).

Read this first. This package does not implement its own recognition engine and does not ship an Amharic model. It asks the OS to recognize Amharic. Whether that works depends entirely on the device and OS — and as of this release, Amharic support is limited and, on many devices, absent. See Platform & locale support before adopting.

What this package gives you

  • ✅ A clean, typed Dart API — startListening(), stopListening(), a Stream<String> of partial + final transcripts, and isAvailable().
  • ✅ Honest availability: isAvailable() returns false (rather than crashing or hanging) when the device can't recognize Amharic. On Android 13+ it queries the recognizer's actual supported-language list.
  • ✅ Typed errors — AmharicSttException with an AmharicSttErrorKind (permissionDenied, localeUnavailable, recognizerBusy, …) instead of raw PlatformExceptions leaking through.
  • ✅ Wraps the platform recognizer; no custom engine, no bundled model, no network service of our own.

Install

dependencies:
  amharic_stt: ^0.1.0

import 'package:amharic_stt/amharic_stt.dart';

You must also declare the platform permissions below.

Quick start

import 'package:amharic_stt/amharic_stt.dart';

final recognizer = AmharicSpeechRecognizer();

Future<void> transcribe() async {
  // 1. Always check first — Amharic may not be supported on this device.
  if (!await recognizer.isAvailable()) {
    // Show "Amharic isn't supported on this device" in your UI.
    return;
  }

  // 2. Listen for partial + final transcripts.
  recognizer.transcripts.listen(
    (text) => print(text),
    onError: (Object e) {
      if (e is AmharicSttException) {
        print('STT failed: ${e.kind} — ${e.message}');
      }
    },
  );

  // 3. Start / stop.
  try {
    await recognizer.startListening();
  } on AmharicSttException catch (e) {
    print('Could not start: ${e.kind}');
  }
  // ...later...
  await recognizer.stopListening();
}

Call recognizer.dispose() when you're done.

Prefer structured updates? Listen to recognizer.results for a Stream<SpeechResult> (transcript + isFinal + optional confidence) instead of the plain Stream<String> transcripts.

API

Symbol Description
AmharicSpeechRecognizer({platform}) The main entry point. platform is for injecting a fake in tests.
isAvailable() → Future<bool> Whether am-ET recognition is usable now. Never throws.
startListening({partialResults = true}) → Future<void> Begins a session. Throws AmharicSttException (recognizerBusy, permissionDenied, localeUnavailable, …).
stopListening() → Future<void> Stops and requests the final result. No-op if idle.
cancel() → Future<void> Cancels immediately, discarding any pending result. No-op if idle.
transcripts → Stream<String> Partial + final transcript text. Errors are AmharicSttException.
results → Stream<SpeechResult> Structured updates (transcript, isFinal, confidence).
isListening → bool Whether a session is currently active.
dispose() Releases resources; the recognizer must not be used afterwards.
SpeechResult { transcript, isFinal, confidence? }.
AmharicSttException { kind, message, platformCode?, details? }.
AmharicSttErrorKind permissionDenied, localeUnavailable, recognizerBusy, noMatch, speechTimeout, network, audio, canceled, notAvailable, unknown.
kAmharicLocaleTag The requested locale — 'am-ET'.

Platform & locale support

This is the honest part. Please read it.

This plugin requests the am-ET locale from the platform recognizer. Neither platform guarantees Amharic, and the reality today is:

Platform Native API Amharic (am-ET) status
Android SpeechRecognizer Sometimes, device-dependent. Google's online recognition accepts am-ET, so devices with Google's speech services and network access may transcribe Amharic. Offline support requires a downloaded Amharic language pack, which most devices do not have and which apps cannot install programmatically. Availability varies by device, OEM, and installed recognition service.
iOS SFSpeechRecognizer Not supported at time of writing. Amharic is not in Apple's SFSpeechRecognizer.supportedLocales() (nor in the iOS 26 SpeechTranscriber list). SFSpeechRecognizer(locale: am-ET) typically returns nil, so isAvailable() returns false and the API fails gracefully.
Web / desktop — Not implemented. isAvailable() returns false.

Because support is genuinely uncertain per device, isAvailable() is not optional — always call it and design your UI for the false case. When it's false, startListening() will throw AmharicSttException with AmharicSttErrorKind.localeUnavailable (or notAvailable) rather than crashing or hanging.

Verification status

Full transparency about what has and hasn't been tested:

  • ✅ Dart API + platform-channel contract — verified by an automated test suite that mocks the method/event channels (see Testing). This covers method names/arguments, stream decoding, isAvailable() true/false logic, and typed-error propagation.
  • ✅ flutter analyze clean and flutter test green for both the package and the example app.
  • ⚠️ Native Android/iOS code — NOT device-verified. The Kotlin and Swift implementations are written against the documented platform APIs but have not been compiled or run on a real device or emulator as part of this release. flutter analyze/flutter test do not build native code.
  • ⚠️ Real Amharic transcription accuracy — NOT verified. No recorded or live Amharic speech has been transcribed through this plugin. Real-world accuracy depends on the platform model, not this wrapper, and must be validated on target devices before you rely on it.

If you run this on a device, please file an issue reporting your device, OS version, and whether isAvailable() returned true — real-world data on Amharic availability is scarce and valuable.

Permissions

Android

The plugin's manifest already declares RECORD_AUDIO (and INTERNET, since online recognition may be used). Runtime microphone permission is requested for you on the first startListening(). No extra setup is required in most apps.

iOS

Add usage descriptions to your app's Info.plist:

<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses the microphone to transcribe Amharic speech.</string>
<key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses speech recognition to transcribe Amharic speech to text.</string>

Testing

The automated suite (flutter test) mocks the platform channels and verifies the public API contract, not real recognition:

  • correct method-channel calls and arguments for startListening / stopListening / cancel / isAvailable;
  • event-channel decoding into SpeechResult (partial → final, missing-field defaults);
  • error translation from platform codes to typed AmharicSttException kinds;
  • AmharicSpeechRecognizer state logic — the recognizerBusy guard, state reset on a failed start, stream mapping, and use-after-dispose.

What the suite deliberately does not cover: actual audio capture, native recognizer behaviour, and Amharic transcription accuracy — see Verification status.

Example

A minimal app (mic button, live partial transcription, start/stop controls, and a visible "not available" message) lives in example/:

cd example
flutter run

Contributing

Part of the ethio_dev_kit monorepo. Issues and pull requests are welcome — please run flutter analyze and flutter test (both must be clean/green) before opening a PR. Device reports on Amharic availability are especially welcome.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Libraries

amharic_stt
On-device Amharic (am-ET) speech-to-text for Flutter.