How do I dictate for the first time?
Hold your dictation key, speak and let go, and the text is typed at your cursor; the first time, guided setup gets you there in five short steps.
Hold your dictation key, speak, and let go. Dictate Safe types what you said wherever your cursor already is. There is no window to paste from and nothing to copy.
The first time you open the app, guided setup walks you through everything this needs: the microphone, a speech model downloaded to your machine, the key you will hold, and one sentence to say so you can watch it work before you leave.
#Before you start
If you skipped setup, or want to check it, it is one click away.
- Open Settings → General and press Open next to Setup & status.
- Check the Microphone row is ticked.
- Check the Speech model row names a model. If it says
None yet, download one. Base is the right first choice at about 150 MB.
Microphone and Speech model are both ticked, and on a Mac so is Accessibility.
#Dictate
- Click into any text field, such as an email, a chat box, or a document.
- Hold the dictation key down.
- Speak normally. You do not need to slow down or over-enunciate.
- Let go.
Your words appear in the field you clicked into.
Click the floating icon near the bottom of the screen to start, and click it again to stop. See what the floating icon does.
#When it does not work
The app names the problem in a short message. If the microphone was never allowed, the Dictate page shows a Finish setup card with the button to allow it. For every other cause and its fix, see Why is nothing typed when I dictate?
English only. The speech models are English variants and the language is fixed. Dictating in another language produces English words that sound similar, not a translation.
Dictate Safe types into whatever holds your cursor. If no text field has focus there is nowhere to type, and you are offered the text to copy or keep as a note instead.