dictate
Hold a key, speak, let go. The words are typed into whatever window has focus. Runs on your own computer, no account, no per-minute cost.
Install
- Run the installer. It installs for your user only, so it never asks for administrator rights.
- Leave Start dictate when I sign in checked unless you would rather launch it yourself.
- When it finishes, a microphone icon appears in the tray by the clock, and a window shows the speech model downloading. That takes a minute the first time and never again.
Dictate
- Click into anything that accepts typing: an email, a chat box, a code editor, a terminal.
- Hold right Ctrl and talk. A small pill at the bottom of the screen turns red while it listens.
- Let go. A fraction of a second later the text appears where the cursor was.
Say comma, period, question mark or new line to get those. Right-click the tray icon and choose Open for history, settings, and a box to practice in.
Settings worth knowing
| Trigger | Any key your other hand never needs, or a mouse thumb button. While the app runs, that key stops doing its normal job. |
|---|---|
| Microphone | The system default unless you pick one. The level meter on the Status tab shows whether the app hears you. |
| Engine | faster-whisper is accurate and needs no setup. Moonshine is quicker on short phrases. Either downloads its model the first time you pick it. |
| Recordings | Every dictation is kept as audio, so a bad transcript can be replayed. Right-click a history row to play, open, or delete it. There is a cap on how many are kept. |
Known limits
- Windows only. The keyboard hook and the typing are Win32.
- Programs running as administrator do not receive the text, and the trigger key does not fire while one of them has focus. Windows blocks input from a less privileged process. Run dictate as administrator if you need it in an admin console.
- English by default. The
large-v3-turbomodel is multilingual, at 1.6 GB and a second or two per dictation. - The first launch needs internet for the model download. After that it runs offline.
If something is wrong
Open the window from the tray icon. The Status tab says whether the engine loaded and whether the microphone
hears you. If the engine failed, the file
errors.log next to the config (the Settings page has an
Open config file button; the log sits beside it) says why. Send that file along with what you
expected to happen.
Two things that look like the app being broken and are not: the tray icon hidden behind the small chevron by the clock, and Windows privacy settings not letting desktop apps use the microphone (Settings, Privacy and security, Microphone).