Manual Dictation
How dictation works
Speak into any app and have your words typed at the cursor, and the settings that control it.
Neato Echo listens when you press a key, transcribes what you say, and types it wherever your cursor is. It works in any app: email, chat, a code editor, a document. Nothing to copy, no window to switch to.
How it works
- Press your hotkey. That's Ctrl+Win by default.
- Speak. The panel shows it's recording.
- Press it again to stop, or hold the key throughout and release, if you've set it to hold.
- The text is transcribed and pasted at your cursor.
Transcription happens on your PC using the Parakeet speech model. There is an optional second stage, cleanup, which tidies the words before they land using the local language model. Cleanup is off by default in Neato Echo, so what you say is what gets typed; turn it on if you'd rather your dictation read more like writing.
Set it up the way you want
Your hotkeys
Separate shortcuts for dictation, the agents, translation and meetings, and how to change or unbind them.
Hold or tap
Press to start and stop, or hold while you speak.
Choosing a shortcut
The rules, the combinations Windows reserves, and what to use instead.
Where your text goes
Automatic pasting and keeping a clipboard copy.
Dictation cleanup
What gets tidied before pasting, and how to switch it on or off.
Other languages
Set the language you speak, or let it detect one.
Translation
Dictate in one language, paste in another.
Better accuracy
The things that measurably improve results.
It isn't only dictation
The same voice, on a different shortcut, can carry out an instruction rather than be typed out. If you're getting answers instead of your words, that's the voice agent. The four things your voice can start tells them apart.
When something goes wrong
Still need help?
Write to [email protected] with your Windows version, your Neato Echo version (Settings → System), and what you were doing. A person reads every message.