Dictation
Talk. It types.
In any app.
Double-tap Shift and speak. Your words land wherever your cursor is: email, Slack, a doc, a client brief. Cleaned up, never reworded into something you wouldn't say.
replaces: built-in dictation, Wispr Flow, and typing out the long replies
Double-tap Shift. That's it.
No window to open, no button to find. Tap Shift twice, talk, tap again. A small card shows it's listening, then the text appears where you were typing.
Works in every app you type in.
Mail, Slack, Notion, Figma comments, the terminal. If a cursor is blinking, you can talk into it.
Speak your language. Get it back.
Talk in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Bengali and more. It writes what you actually said, not a translation of it.
Your words, tidied. Not rewritten.
Ums and false starts come out. Say “new line” or “period” and it does it. Your phrasing stays yours.
You speak about 3x faster
than you type.
Long client replies, project notes and meeting follow-ups take a minute out loud. Dictation is part of SayBriefly, next to your meetings, tasks and projects.
What is dictation software?
Dictation turns your voice
into text, wherever you type.
Dictation software listens while you speak and types the words for you, so you can write an email, a message or a document by talking instead of typing. A good voice to text app works in every app, handles punctuation, and copes with the way people actually speak: pauses, false starts, switching languages.
SayBriefly dictation types what you say into any app on your Mac or Windows computer, in any language, without rewriting your words. It's included in SayBriefly, so there's no separate dictation subscription, and it lives in the same app as your meetings, tasks and scope alerts.
How it works
Tap. Talk. It's typed.
1. Tap the shortcut
Double-tap Shift on Mac, or press Ctrl+Shift+D on Windows, wherever your cursor is.
2. Talk normally
A small card shows it's listening. Pause, think, carry on. It waits for you.
3. Tap again
Your words appear where you were typing, tidied up and punctuated.
Your words, not a rewrite
It writes what you said.
Not what an AI thinks you meant.
Some dictation apps rewrite everything you say into polished, generic sentences. Handy for a quick note, but it isn't your voice, and clients notice. SayBriefly removes the ums and false starts, adds the punctuation, and leaves your phrasing alone.
What you said“Hi Maria, um, thanks for the feedback, new paragraph, so uh we can do the homepage changes by Friday, the mobile app is, um, a separate project so I'll send you a quote period”
What got typedHi Maria, thanks for the feedback.
We can do the homepage changes by Friday. The mobile app is a separate project, so I'll send you a quote.
Filler out, meaning in.
No rewriting
“Um”, “uh” and false starts are removed. Your sentences, your tone and your words stay exactly as you said them.
Say the punctuation if you want.
Spoken commands
“New line”, “new paragraph”, “period” or “full stop”, “comma”, “question mark” and “exclamation mark” do what they say. Or just talk, and it punctuates for you.
Any language, even mixed.
No translation
Speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Bengali and more, or switch halfway through a sentence. Each part is written in the language you spoke it in.
Every app with a cursor.
Works everywhere you type
Mail, Slack, Notion, Google Docs, Figma comments, your browser, the terminal. If a cursor is blinking, you can talk into it.
Stop paying fordictation separately.
Most people end up paying for a dictation app, a meeting notetaker and a to-do app: three subscriptions for three things that should talk to each other. Dictation comes included in SayBriefly, with everything you'd expect from a dictation app.
Every dictation feature, included
Any app, any language, spoken punctuation, filler words removed, Mac and Windows.
No second subscription
If you use SayBriefly for meetings or projects, dictation is already there.
One app, not three
Dictation, meeting notes and your to-do list in one place, on one bill.
Built-in dictation, AI dictation apps,
and SayBriefly.
← Scroll to compare →
Works in any app
Mac and Windows
one each
Windows newer
Keeps your exact wording
rewrites it
modes reshape it
Mixed-language speech
limited
Works offline
Separate subscription just for dictation
no, built in
yes
yes
Also takes meeting notes and catches scope creep
Checked September 2026 from each product's public website and independent 2026 reviews.
What people dictate
The writing you've been putting off.
A client reply“Hi Maria, thanks for the feedback, new paragraph, we can do the homepage changes by Friday, the mobile app is a separate project so I'll send you a quote, period.” Typed as a clean two-paragraph email, in your words.
A project briefTalk through the goals, the deliverables and what's not included for five minutes, then tidy it into a brief.
The long explanation you'd never type out, said in thirty seconds.
Notes after a callWhat you want to remember, said out loud before you forget it.
Speech to text on Mac and Windows
Better than the dictation
you already have.
Speech to text on Mac.
Double-tap Shift · macOS 12 or later
Built-in macOS dictation is fine for short phrases, but reviewers note it struggles with names and specialist words. SayBriefly is made for longer dictation on your MacBook, iMac or Mac mini: it waits while you pause to think, and keeps going.
Dictation software for Windows.
Ctrl+Shift+D · Windows 10 and 11
Press Ctrl+Shift+D in any app, talk, and your words appear where you were typing. The same languages and the same tidy-not-rewrite approach as on Mac.
Getting good at it
How to dictate well:
six tips for any voice to text app.
Say the whole thought
Finish the sentence in your head, then say it. Dictation handles pauses, so there's no rush.
Talk like you'd talk to a colleague
Normal pace, normal voice. Speaking slowly and robotically makes the text worse, not better.
Use “new paragraph”
For emails and briefs, saying “new paragraph” between ideas gives you clean structure with no editing.
Dictate first, edit second
Get everything out, then fix a word or two with the keyboard. It's faster than stopping to correct.
Spell out rare names once
Unusual client or product names may come out wrong the first time; a quick fix beats typing the whole thing.
A decent mic helps
Your MacBook or laptop mic works. Earbuds or a headset in a noisy room work better.
Who dictates
Built for people who write
for clients all day.
Freelancers
Proposals, client updates and invoice notes, said out loud between calls instead of typed late at night.
Designers
Feedback in Figma comments and explanations of design decisions, without breaking your flow in the canvas.
Developers
Pull request descriptions, tickets and long Slack explanations, dictated right into the editor or the terminal.
Your thoughts run faster than your fingers.
Say them before they're gone.
When typing is the bottleneck
Say it while it's still in your head.
For a lot of people, and for many with ADHD, the hard part of writing isn't the thinking, it's holding the thought long enough to type it. Dictation removes that gap: you say it once, while it's clear, and it's written.
Start without a blank page
Talk it out first, tidy later.
Stay in flow
No switching between thinking and typing.
Less to hold in your head
Say it now, and it's saved where you were typing.
Where your voice goes.
When you dictate, the audio is sent to our speech provider to turn it into text, and the text is typed where your cursor is. SayBriefly dictation needs an internet connection. The privacy policy lists every provider.
Questions
What people ask about dictation.
What is the best dictation app for Mac?
+
It depends on what you need. For offline, private dictation, Superwhisper runs on your Mac. For polished, rewritten text, Wispr Flow. For your exact words in any language, plus meeting notes, tasks and scope alerts in the same app, SayBriefly.
How do I start dictating?
+
Double-tap Shift on Mac, or press Ctrl+Shift+D on Windows. Talk, then tap again. The text appears where your cursor is.
Does it rewrite what I say?
+
No. It removes filler words and adds punctuation, but keeps your wording.
Which apps does it work in?
+
Any app with a text cursor: email, Slack, Notion, Google Docs, Figma comments, your browser and the terminal.
Which languages does it support?
+
Many, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Bengali, and speech that switches between two languages.
Can I say punctuation?
+
Yes: “new line”, “new paragraph”, “period” or “full stop”, “comma”, “question mark” and “exclamation mark”.
Does it work offline?
+
No. Dictation uses a cloud speech provider, so you need an internet connection.
Do I need a separate subscription for dictation?
+
No. Dictation is included in SayBriefly, together with the meeting notetaker, to-do list and scope alerts.
Does it work on Windows?
+
Yes. Press Ctrl+Shift+D in any app on Windows 10 or 11.
It's 4pm on a Friday. The brief is locked, the client is happy, and Scribbble already sent the meeting recap. You close the laptop.
That's the point.
“SayBriefly allows me to give my full awareness in meetings, enabling radical presence, relevant question-asking, and finding flow that was otherwise elusive when note-taking.”
Emma Joel, Creative Director
Itsmy Studio
“The AI summaries are incredibly accurate. Our entire team adopted SayBriefly within weeks, and our post-meeting clarity has never been better.”
Marcus Chen, Product Manager
Pixel Lab
“What used to take hours of note-taking and follow-up emails now happens automatically. SayBriefly is the assistant I didn't know I needed.”
Sarah Williams, Head of Design
Studio Bloom
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