Dictation modes

Amical has two recording modes. They're not exclusive: both bind to a global shortcut and both end up pasting text into the focused app.

Push to talk

Hold the shortcut (default Fn), talk, release. Amical transcribes and pastes the moment you let go.

• Best for short bursts: a sentence in Slack, a quick search query, replying to a message.
• Won't run away if you forget about it — releasing the key always stops the recording.
• A press shorter than 500 ms is treated as a slip and discarded, so a stray tap won't capture noise.

Bind it under Settings → Shortcuts → Push to talk.

Hands-free mode

Press the shortcut (default Fn+Space) once to start, press again to stop. The floating widget shows a 6-bar waveform while recording.

• Best for longer passes: drafting an email, dictating a paragraph of code comments, talking through a thought.
• Auto-stops after 5 seconds of silence, so you won't accidentally leave it running.
• Hard cap at 6 minutes per recording, with a warning at 5.

Bind it under Settings → Shortcuts → Hands-free mode. The floating desktop widget triggers the same mode when you click it.

Paste last transcript

A separate shortcut (default Cmd+Ctrl+V) re-pastes the most recent transcription into whatever app has focus. Useful if you dictated into the wrong window or want to copy the same text somewhere else without re-recording.

Behind the scenes

Both modes go through the same pipeline: audio → speech model → optional formatting pass → paste. The choice of model lives in Settings → AI Models, not here.