Amical LogoAmical

Shortcuts

The four global shortcuts Amical registers and how to rebind them.

Amical registers four global shortcuts. They all live under Settings → Shortcuts.

Settings → Shortcuts with the four configurable bindings
ShortcutDefaultWhat it does
Push to talkFnHold to record, release to transcribe and paste.
Hands-free modeFn+SpacePress once to start a recording, again to stop.
Paste last transcriptCmd+Ctrl+VRe-pastes the most recent transcription into the focused app.
New noteCmd+Ctrl+NOpens a fresh note in Amical.

When to use which dictation shortcut

  • Push to talk is best for short bursts — a quick reply, a search query, a one-liner. Releasing the key always stops the recording, so it can't run away on you.
  • Hands-free mode is best for longer passages — drafting an email, talking through a thought, code comments. Clicking the floating widget triggers the same mode without touching the keyboard.

Both modes share the same silence-detection, length cap, and slip-press threshold — see AI dictation for the exact numbers.

Rebind one

  1. Open Settings → Shortcuts.
  2. Click the chip for the shortcut you want to change.
  3. Press the keys. Amical captures the combination live.

If the combination conflicts with something else (a system shortcut, an already-bound Amical shortcut), Amical reverts the change and shows the conflict in a toast.

Notes

  • Shortcuts are global — they fire while any app has focus.
  • Amical syncs them with a native helper to suppress the default behaviour of those keys, so a shortcut bound to Fn won't trigger the macOS dictation popup.
  • If a key gets stuck (held when the app didn't see the release), Amical clears stale state every 10 seconds.