Speedy Flow or Apple's built-in dictation?

macOS includes a dictation feature: it's built into the system, free, and works well for dictating a few sentences. Speedy Flow isn't trying to replace it for everyone. It's for people who write a lot by voice and want text that's ready to send, plus notes from their meetings.

Apple's built-in dictation: a solid starting point

Apple Dictation is already on your Mac: nothing to install, nothing to pay. For a short message, a search or a quick note, it's a simple, effective option. If that's all you need, you may not need anything else.

Speedy Flow starts from a different use: dictating your emails, messages, meeting notes and prompts all day long, and getting polished text in the right tone, right where your cursor is.

What Speedy Flow adds to voice dictation on Mac

Cleaned-up text, not a raw transcript

You talk the way you always do, hesitations and all. Speedy Flow removes the “um”s, repetitions and sentences you corrected midway, adds punctuation and capital letters, and takes your corrections into account.

A Dictionary that learns your corrections

Add your client names, brands and technical terms: they're always spelled right. And when you fix a word after a dictation, Speedy Flow remembers it for next time.

Snippets: one phrase, the whole text

Say “my address” and your full address is typed out. Same for a signature, a link or a canned reply.

Speeds and Transformations: the right tone, in the right app

With Speeds, the same message becomes a polished email in Mail or a direct message in Slack. Transformations apply a rewrite to your dictations: cleanup, professional tone, concision…

A history so nothing gets lost

Every dictation is kept in your history, on your Mac. If the text isn't right, you can undo the rewrite or run the transcription again.

50+ languages, detected automatically

Your language is detected with no setup, and you can switch from English to French in the same sentence: the text keeps up.

What you get with Speedy Flow

Automatic meeting transcription, on top

This is the other half of Speedy Flow. During your video calls and phone calls (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, FaceTime, WhatsApp…), it transcribes the conversation, then writes the meeting notes: summary, key points, decisions and action items to check off. No bot joins the call; the audio is captured on your Mac. You can then ask questions like “Who's sending the quote?” Discover meeting notes.

Privacy: what Speedy Flow does with your voice

Speedy Flow's transcription happens online, so you need an internet connection. Audio travels encrypted, only to be transcribed, and isn't kept afterward. Your history, notes and transcripts stay on your Mac: we don't keep any copies, and nothing is used to train models. It's all explained in our privacy policy.

Which one should you choose?

• You dictate a sentence or two now and then: your Mac's built-in dictation may be all you need.
• You write a lot every day (emails, messages, documents, prompts) and want text that's ready to send: that's what Speedy Flow is built for.
• You spend time in meetings and want meeting notes without taking notes: Speedy Flow brings dictation and meeting notes together in one app.

The easiest way is to try it: the free version includes 4,000 words per month and 3 transcribed meetings. See pricing.

Can you use both?

Yes. Just make sure they don't share the same shortcut. Speedy Flow uses the held fn key (or ⌥ Space) and recommends setting “Press fn key to” to “Do Nothing” in System Settings → Keyboard. The getting started guide walks you through every step.

Frequently asked questions