Dictation
Talk instead of typing — the mic in the composer turns speech into the prompt, live.
Transcripts turn a recording into a document. Dictation goes the other way: you talk, and the words appear in the composer as the prompt you were about to type. The product puts it in a single line — "Talk instead of type — Select the mic in the composer and dictate your prompt."
Nothing is saved as a transcript, nothing lands in your assets. It is a way of writing.
Where the mic is
When a chat composer is empty, the send button is a microphone, labelled "Start dictation". Type anything and it turns back into the send button — so the mic is always exactly where your thumb already is, and never in the way of sending.
The workspace home composer
The big composer you land on, and any chat you open.
Social radar
The composer on the Social radar page has it too — it's the same composer with a recency control attached.
Dictating
Select the mic
The first time, your browser asks for permission to use the microphone. The composer switches to a recording bar straight away: a cancel ✕, a pulsing red dot, and a running timer.
Talk
Your words appear in the composer as you speak. The sentence you're still saying shows as provisional text and firms up as you pause; each finished chunk is added to the message for real, announced as "Dictation added to message". Anything already in the composer is kept — dictation adds to your draft rather than replacing it.
Stop, or cancel
The send button becomes a stop button while you're recording — select it, or press Enter, to finish. Endless catches up on the last thing you said and then hands the composer back to you.
To throw the recording away instead, select the ✕, or press Escape. Nothing is added.
Read it before you send it
Dictation writes the prompt, it doesn't send it. Pressing Enter while recording stops the recording — it doesn't send the message — so you always get a look at the text first. Edit it like anything you typed, then send.
Worth knowing
Five minutes per go
A single dictation runs for at most five minutes and then finishes itself, keeping what it heard. For anything longer, dictate again — or record it and make a transcript instead.
Enter and Escape
While recording, Enter confirms and Escape cancels. Both keep their normal meanings the moment the recording ends.
Cancel loses everything
Stopping keeps the text; cancelling drops it, including the part you could already see. There's no undo for a cancelled dictation.
No credits
Dictation isn't billed by the minute the way a transcription is, and it doesn't need any particular plan.
If it doesn't start
The composer says what went wrong rather than failing quietly.
| What you'll see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Microphone access is blocked — allow it in your browser settings" | Permission was denied for this site. Re-allow the microphone and select the mic again |
| "No microphone found — connect one and try again" | No input device is available to the browser |
| "Dictation isn't supported in this browser — type your message instead" | The browser can't do live audio. Use a current desktop or mobile browser |
| "Couldn't start dictation — try again" or "Dictation failed — try again" | A transient problem starting or holding the session. Select the mic again |
Dictation needs a working microphone and a live connection — it transcribes as you speak rather than recording a file and sending it. If the connection drops mid-sentence, what had already been added to the composer stays.