Still unable to use dictation at all with Airpods

I am able to use dictation fine with non-apple earpieces but neither of the Airpods will let me. I click the microphone button under the keyboard and the little microphone pops up for a second and a spinning wheel and then both disappear and I can't use dictation. I have already gone through and cleaned them, unpaired and repaired, and verified that both microphones work by using voice memo app it works fine and both mics record great. I restarted my phone earlier and right after that I was able to dictate one single text but then it stopped again. Restarted the phone again, still no go. The phone is updated to latest IOS. I have tried microphone setting on left, right and auto. No go.