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Voice Typing lets you dictate in any app on Mac or Windows. Hold a key, speak naturally, then let go. Granola turns what you said into clean, formatted text and pastes it where your cursor is. Voice Typing is in beta on the Mac and Windows desktop apps and is included for free in every Granola plan. It’s coming soon on mobile.
Voice Typing is separate from meeting transcription. It can be used across apps outside of Granola, such as Claude, ChatGPT and Gmail. Voice Typing doesn’t start a new meeting or dictate into an existing one.

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Setting up Voice Typing

  1. Click your workspace name in the bottom-left corner, then select Settings.
  2. Open Voice typing and turn on Enable Voice Typing.
  3. Complete the setup steps. Granola will ask you to:
    • on Mac, allow Accessibility for Granola in macOS System Settings, so it can detect your shortcut, get the surrounding context from the app and paste into other apps. Windows skips this step
    • allow microphone access, and check Granola can hear you
    • test your shortcut, and try a dictation
On Mac, if Granola loses Accessibility permission later, the Voice typing settings page shows a prompt to allow it again.

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Dictating

  1. Click into the text field you want to write in.
  2. Press and hold your shortcut and start speaking. The default is fn (🌐) on Mac or Left Ctrl + Windows key on Windows. You can change it. A pill with a waveform appears at the bottom of your screen while Granola listens.
  3. Let go of the shortcut. Granola finishes your text and pastes it in.

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Hands-free

For longer messages, double-tap your shortcut instead of holding it. Dictation keeps going until you press the shortcut again or finish from the pill. A dictation can be up to 20 minutes long. At 20 minutes, Granola stops listening and pastes what you’ve said so far.

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Cancelling

Press Esc to cancel. This works while you’re speaking and while Granola is finishing your text. Nothing is pasted. In hands-free mode you can also cancel from the pill.

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Changing your shortcut

  1. In Settings > Voice typing, click the keys next to Shortcut.
  2. Press the key or combination you want to use.
Click Reset to restore the default shortcut. Common editing shortcuts, like Cmd/Ctrl+C, Cmd/Ctrl+V and Cmd/Ctrl+Z, can’t be used. App-switching shortcuts such as Cmd+Tab and Alt+Tab are also unavailable.

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What Granola does with your words

Granola doesn’t paste a raw transcript. It edits your speech so it reads well, while keeping your wording:
  • It removes filler words like “um” and “uh”, and accidental repeats.
  • It adds punctuation, splits separate thoughts into paragraphs, and uses bullets or numbers when you list things.
Granola never answers or acts on what you say. If you dictate “Write a reply to Sam about the launch” into ChatGPT, that’s exactly what gets pasted. Granola can also match the app you’re dictating into, so an email gets a greeting and paragraphs while a Slack message stays short. See Screen context and Dictation styles.

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Language

Choose the languages you speak in Settings > Voice typing, under Language. Until you choose, Granola uses up to three of your computer’s languages. If it doesn’t support any of them, it uses Auto-detect. If you switch between languages, choose Auto-detect. Granola keeps each part of your dictation in the language you spoke it in. It doesn’t translate.

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Microphone and sound

Choose the microphone you want to use under Microphone in Settings > Voice typing. A built-in or wired microphone works best. Bluetooth microphones are less reliable, so Granola marks them in the list. Mute other audio, under Sound, is on by default. It mutes your computer’s sound while you dictate, so music or videos don’t get picked up. Turn it off in the same settings page.