Use Flow hands-free

Last updated: April 30, 2026

Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Hands-free mode lets Flow listen continuously without holding down a key — speak naturally and your text pastes when you're done. Use it for longer dictations or to keep your hands off the keyboard.

How to start hands-free dictation

Mac

There are three ways to start hands-free dictation on Mac.

Start with a shortcut

  1. Place your cursor in any text field.

  2. Press your hands-free shortcut — Fn + Space by default.

  3. Wait for the ping or watch for the white bars moving on the Flow Bar.

  4. Speak normally — Flow keeps listening without you holding any key.

Note: If your Mac doesn't have an Fn key, your default shortcuts may be Ctrl + Opt (push-to-talk) and Ctrl + Opt + Space (hands-free).

Start from the scratchpad

  1. Open the scratchpad with your scratchpad shortcut — Option + S by default.

  2. Double-tap the same shortcut while the scratchpad is open to start hands-free dictation.

  3. Speak normally — Flow keeps listening without you holding any key.

Tip: Hold the scratchpad shortcut for about a second while the scratchpad is open to use push-to-talk — release the key when you're done speaking.

Start from the Flow Bar

  1. Place your cursor in any text field.

  2. Click the Flow Bar at the center of your screen.

  3. Speak when you hear the ping or see the white bars move.

Stop and paste your text

  1. Press your hands-free shortcut again, or click the red stop icon in the Flow Bar.

Your transcript pastes into the active text field. If text appears in Recent Activity, hands-free is working.

Note: During hands-free dictation, clicking the Flow Bar does not stop your recording. Use the stop or cancel buttons, or press your shortcut key to end the session.

Important: Desktop dictation sessions have a 20-minute maximum. You'll see a warning at 19 minutes, and recording stops automatically at 20 minutes.

Windows

There are two ways to start hands-free dictation on Windows.

Start with a shortcut

  1. Place your cursor in any text field.

  2. Press your hands-free shortcut — Ctrl + Win + Space by default.

  3. Wait for the ping or watch for the white bars moving on the Flow Bar.

  4. Speak normally — Flow keeps listening without you holding the keys.

Start from the Flow Bar

  1. Place your cursor in any text field.

  2. Click the Flow Bar at the center of your screen.

  3. Speak when you hear the ping or see the white bars move.

Stop and paste your text

  1. Press your hands-free shortcut again, or click the red stop icon in the Flow Bar.

Your transcript pastes into the active text field. If text appears in Recent Activity, hands-free is working.

Note: During hands-free dictation, clicking the Flow Bar does not stop your recording. Use the stop or cancel buttons, or press your shortcut key to end the session.

Important: Desktop dictation sessions have a 20-minute maximum. You'll see a warning at 19 minutes, and recording stops automatically at 20 minutes.

iOS

Keyboard shortcuts aren't available on iOS, but you can dictate hands-free using tap-to-record:

  1. Open the Wispr Flow app.

  2. Tap into a text field so the cursor appears.

  3. Tap the microphone icon to start recording.

  4. Speak your text, then tap Stop to insert your transcript.

Tip: You can also dictate hands-free using Siri. Say "Quick dictate to notes with Flow" or "Save note with Flow" to start Flow's live audio transcription. Say "Save Flow note" for a Siri-based alternative — Siri asks what the note should say and saves it as text (this uses Siri's speech recognition, not Flow's).

Android

On Android, dictate hands-free using the Flow Bubble:

  1. Tap a text field to open the on-screen keyboard — the Flow Bubble appears automatically when the keyboard is visible.

  2. Tap the Flow Bubble to start recording.

  3. Speak your text.

  4. Tap the Done button (checkmark icon) to stop and insert your transcript.

After tapping Done, a brief processing animation appears. During this time, only the Cancel button is available — the Done button is replaced by a spinner until transcription completes.

After a successful dictation, a copy-to-clipboard button appears next to the Flow Bubble for 5 seconds. Tap it to copy your dictated text — useful when you want to paste it somewhere else immediately.

Tip: Long-press the Flow Bubble to use hold-to-dictate mode — keep your finger on the bubble while speaking, then release to automatically stop and insert your text. No on-screen buttons appear during this mode.

Note: The Flow Bubble only appears when the on-screen keyboard is visible. If you're using an external keyboard or the soft keyboard is collapsed, the bubble won't appear.

Note: In some apps where direct text insertion isn't supported (such as certain Slack fields), a Copy button appears so you can paste your text manually.

Important: Android dictation sessions have a 5-minute limit. At around 4 minutes you'll see "1 minute left before you reach the 5-minute limit." At 5 minutes the session stops and submits automatically — your audio is preserved and transcribed normally.

Reveal a snoozed Flow Bubble

If you snoozed the Flow Bubble (by dragging it to the bottom of the screen), shake your device rapidly to bring it back early. Snooze lasts 10 minutes — the bubble returns automatically after that. This requires the Wispr Flow accessibility service to be enabled.

Note: The shake gesture only works when the bubble is snoozed. It does not work during active recording or when the bubble is hidden for other reasons (for example, no text field focused).

Press Enter without touching the keyboard

Say "press enter" at the end of your dictation and Flow presses the Enter key after pasting your text — useful for sending messages or submitting prompts hands-free. The words "press enter" are stripped from your transcript.

Note: "Press enter" is only recognized at the very end of your dictation. If you say it in the middle of a sentence, it appears as regular text.

Tip: The first time Flow detects "press enter," it shows a notification explaining the feature but doesn't press Enter yet. Tap Great to enable, or Disable to keep "press enter" as regular text. Once enabled, manage it in Flow Hub → Settings → Experimental.

Change your hands-free shortcut

  1. Open Flow Hub → Settings → General → Shortcuts → Change.

  2. Find the Hands-free section and set your preferred key combination.

  3. Test the new shortcut in a text field — if Flow starts listening, the new shortcut is working.

You can bind up to 4 different shortcuts for each action, with each shortcut containing up to 3 keys. Use Reset to default at the bottom of the Shortcuts dialog to restore the original shortcuts. If your hands-free shortcut overlaps with your push-to-talk shortcut, a conflict warning appears.

Common issues

Double-tap activation only worked once on the Gmail onboarding page

On the Gmail "Try It Yourself" onboarding page, using the double-tap shortcut to start hands-free dictation would work the first time but stop responding on subsequent attempts. This is now fixed — double-tap activation works repeatedly on that page. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to get the fix.

Push-to-talk input stayed active after cancelling dictation

In push-to-talk mode, cancelling a dictation session without speaking — or pressing Escape — could leave the input field active instead of returning to the "double-tap to start" prompt. This is now fixed. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to get the fix.

Dictation reliability issues on Android 16 devices

On Android 16, certain apps use new interface features that could cause Flow to lose its connection to the text field mid-dictation, resulting in text not being inserted correctly. Flow now detects this more reliably and recovers faster. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to get the fix.

Bugs fixed in recent updates

The following issues are resolved. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to get these fixes:

  • Submit button clipped off-screen when switching dictation modes (fixed in v1.5.1): The submit button could be cut off when switching between push-to-talk and hands-free modes due to the UI not refreshing correctly.

  • Copy-to-clipboard button appeared for too long on Android (fixed in v1.5.0): The copy button now appears for 5 seconds (previously 10 seconds) after a successful dictation.

  • Copy button remained visible after dismissing the Flow Bubble on Android: The copy button is now properly dismissed whenever the Flow Bubble is hidden.

  • Copy button flashed briefly after successful dictation on Android: The copy button now only appears when text insertion actually fails.

  • Hands-free suggestion showed placeholder text: The notification now shows your real configured shortcut instead of generic text.

  • Flow Bar tooltip was incorrect during dictation: Hovering over the Flow Bar during active hands-free dictation now displays the correct finish instruction.

FAQs

Why didn't my text paste after dictation?

Make sure your cursor stayed in a text field while dictating. Check Recent Activity in Flow — if your text appears there but not in your app, try a different app to see if the issue is app-specific. On Android 16, updating Wispr Flow improves text insertion reliability.

My custom shortcut isn't working. What should I check?

Confirm the shortcut isn't already used by your operating system or another app. Go to Flow Hub → Settings → General → Shortcuts → Change and choose a different combination. Test in a simple text editor like Notepad or TextEdit.

Does "press enter" work with punctuation?

Yes. Flow handles punctuation intelligently — if you say "Hello world. Press enter," your text pastes as "Hello world." with no extra period before the Enter key is pressed.

Why doesn't tapping the Flow Bubble waveform do anything during dictation on Android?

The waveform area is a visual indicator only — it doesn't respond to taps or long-presses. To stop dictation, use the Done button (checkmark). To cancel, use the Cancel button. In tap-to-dictate mode, buttons become active after a brief delay (~250ms) to prevent accidental taps.

What happens to my audio if the 5-minute session limit is reached on Android?

Nothing is lost. When the session stops at 5 minutes, all dictated audio is preserved and transcribed normally — exactly as if you had stopped the session yourself.

What happens if transcription or text insertion fails on Android?

If transcription fails, your audio is saved in the app — tap Retry on the error message to try again. If transcription succeeds but text insertion fails, Flow automatically copies the text to your clipboard — tap Paste to insert it manually.

Still stuck?

Reach out to our support team if:

  • Hands-free dictation doesn't start after pressing your shortcut, even after restarting Flow.

  • Your transcript appears in Recent Activity but never pastes into any app.

  • You see an error message not covered above.

When you contact us, please include your platform and OS version, the shortcut you're using, and the apps where you've tested. Most hands-free issues are resolved in one reply.