Let’s get you talking.

Click the Speaklively icon at the top of your screen. If it says “Setup isn’t finished”, choose Finish setup… — it picks up where you left off.

Check Speaklively is switched on in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility (on macOS 27 it’s called Device Control and Data Access). That switch is what lets it notice the key and type for you.

If the 🌐 key opens emoji or switches your keyboard language instead, see “Pressing fn opens emoji” below. Or switch to the right ⌘ key in Settings › General › Dictation key.

Hold fn down the whole time you talk, like a voice note, and let go when you’re done. A quick press doesn’t count, so a stray tap never starts a dictation by accident.

If holding is awkward, try hands-free: press fn and Space together, let go, and talk. Tap fn to finish.

That means there was nowhere to type — the panel says “No text box selected.” Click where the words should go, then press ⌘V to paste them.

It also copies instead of typing if you switch apps mid-dictation, and it never types into a password field.

Wait until the panel says “Listening…” before you start. If your microphone is slow to wake, it says “Starting the mic…” first — give it that beat.

If it says “The start got cut off.”, just say it again a moment later.

Another app has switched on macOS’s secure input — password managers and some company VPNs do. The panel says “Another app is blocking shortcuts — holding fn still works.”

Holding fn keeps working, and the panel’s buttons still work with your mouse. The shortcuts come back when that app lets go.

macOS gives the 🌐 key its own job. Open System Settings › Keyboard and set “Press 🌐 key to” to Do Nothing.

When it happens, the panel says “Your Mac opened emoji instead.” with a Fix it button that takes you straight to that setting.

Yes. In Settings › General › Dictation key, choose right ⌘, or Custom… to record any key combination — even a programmable keyboard’s macro key.

Custom shortcuts work by tapping: tap to start, tap again to finish. They can’t reach password fields, or Terminal with Secure Keyboard Entry on, because macOS hides those keystrokes from every app. fn and right ⌘ still work there.

Check your input volume in System Settings › Sound › Input — the panel says “Your mic volume is turned down.” when that’s the problem.

Make sure it’s listening to the right mic: click the Speaklively icon › Microphone, or Settings › General › Microphone. This only changes the mic Speaklively uses; the rest of your Mac stays as it is.

Bluetooth headsets switch to a thinner, phone-quality sound while the mic is on. Your Mac’s built-in mic often gives better words.

Settings › General › Transcribe in. It listens in one language at a time.

The first time you choose a language, macOS downloads it from Apple, which needs the internet once. After that it works offline. Apple’s on-device models cover 54 languages between them.

Original is exactly what you said. Tidy takes out the ums and false starts, on your Mac, free. Polish rewrites it as clean written prose. Structure is Polish plus paragraphs and proper lists.

Polish and Structure use Claude, so they need the internet: 15 free with no email, 100 more free once you verify your email, or use your own Anthropic key. Your words go to Claude only when you press one of them.

Tidy uses Apple Intelligence. Switch it on in System Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri.

If it says “Tidy: getting ready”, macOS is still downloading its model — it’ll start working on its own.

Turn them on in Settings › General › AI Rewrites. Verify your email there for 100 more, or add your own Anthropic key for no cap.

Offline? The panel says so, and Tidy still works without a network.

Yes, in Settings. Your key takes precedence over the one Speaklively hands you whenever both are present, which means no cap, no metering, and nothing of yours passing through my relay at all.

Turn Polish and Structure off in Settings and it never reaches for the network. Dictation and Tidy carry on working with the Wi-Fi off, and Original — what you actually said — is kept whatever else is switched on.

Speaklively checks once a day and downloads new versions quietly. It installs one when you’ve stepped away for a couple of minutes, then opens again by itself.

Want it now? Click the Speaklively icon and choose Restart to Update.

Only on your Mac. History keeps your last 100 as plain text, dismissed ones included, so one you closed by mistake is still there: in the menu under Recent Dictations, or in History in the Speaklively window.

Clear them from the menu — Recent Dictations › Clear History. Turn history off in Settings and nothing is written to disk at all. The audio never is, either way.

In System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility, switch Speaklively off and back on. If that doesn’t do it, select it, click − to remove it, then click + and add it again.

Then quit Speaklively from its menu and open it again — setup picks up wherever something is still missing.

Click the Speaklively icon › Quit Speaklively, then drag Speaklively from Applications to the Trash.

To remove everything, also delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Speaklively, and remove Speaklively from System Settings › Privacy & Security under Accessibility, Microphone and Speech Recognition.