# Advanced URL: /docs/advanced-settings Update channel, retention, paths, machine ID, and the reset button. *** title: Advanced description: Update channel, retention, paths, machine ID, and the reset button. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Settings → Advanced** holds the things you'll touch rarely — once at setup, once when something's wrong. ## Performance * **Preload Whisper Model** — keep the local speech model loaded in memory so the first push-to-talk is fast. On by default. Turn it off to save RAM if you mostly use the cloud model. ## Behaviour * **Preserve clipboard contents** — Amical pastes by writing to your clipboard, then restoring whatever was there before. On by default. Turn it off if you'd rather Amical leave its transcript on the clipboard. * **Debug Mode** — extra logging for bug reports. Off by default. ## Updates * **Update Channel** — **Stable** (default) or **Beta**. Beta gets new features earlier and bugs to match. The auto-updater follows whichever you're on. ## History * **History Retention** — how long Amical keeps audio files attached to your transcriptions. **1 day, 7 days, 14 days, 28 days, Never**. Default is **Never**. The transcript text always stays; only audio is pruned when you set a cutoff. ## Privacy * **Anonymous Telemetry** — see [Telemetry](/docs/telemetry) for what's collected and the side-effects of turning it off. ## Diagnostics * **Data Location** — where Amical stores your database, models, and audio. Read-only. * **Log File Location** — where logs live. The **Download** button next to it saves the current log file out for sharing in a bug report. * **Machine ID** — your install's anonymous ID for telemetry. **Copy** puts it on your clipboard; include it in bug reports. ## Danger zone * **Reset App** — wipes transcriptions, notes, vocabulary, settings, and downloaded models. Sign-out doesn't happen automatically; sign out separately if you also want to clear your account session. The confirm dialog lists everything that will be deleted. The action runs a clean restart of the app afterwards. # AI formatting URL: /docs/ai-formatting Turn a raw transcript into punctuation, structure, and an app-appropriate tone. *** title: AI formatting description: Turn a raw transcript into punctuation, structure, and an app-appropriate tone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AI formatting runs your raw transcript through a language model that adds punctuation and structure, and shapes the output to fit the app you're dictating into. An email gets a greeting on its own line; a Slack message stays a one-liner; meeting notes come back as bullets. ## Turn it on Open **Settings → Dictation → Formatting** (marked **Alpha**) and flip the switch. The toggle is disabled until at least one of these is true: * You have a local language model synced under **Settings → AI Models → Language** (Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint), or * You're signed in *and* using the **Amical Cloud** speech model. The cloud formatter rides on the same connection as cloud speech, so both have to be set up. The **Formatting model** picker below the toggle lets you choose which model does the rewrite — Amical Cloud, or any local language model you've synced. ## What changes per app Amical detects the focused app and adjusts the formatting rules. The same dictation comes out differently depending on where it lands. ### Email Input: `hi john um i wanted to follow up on our meeting the proposal looks good but we need to revise the timeline thanks sarah` Output: ``` Hi John, I wanted to follow up on our meeting. The proposal looks good, but we need to revise the timeline. Thanks, Sarah ``` Greeting, body, and closing land on their own lines. Tone stays professional. Short replies stay short — no greeting is invented if you didn't say one. ### Chat (Slack, Discord, iMessage) Input: `hey um quick question do you know if the deploy went through i saw some errors in the logs` Output: ``` Hey, quick question - do you know if the deploy went through? I saw some errors in the logs. ``` Conversational. Dashes and commas for natural pauses instead of paragraph breaks. Emoji preserved. Short replies don't get padded. ### Notes Input: `meeting notes attendees john sarah mike discussed the roadmap action items sarah to finalize design by friday mike to review budget` Output: ``` Meeting Notes Attendees: John, Sarah, Mike Discussed the roadmap. Action items: - Sarah to finalize design by Friday - Mike to review budget ``` Headings and bullets when the content implies a list. Action items get pulled out. Scannable, not prose-heavy. ### Amical Notes Input into a note in Amical itself goes a step further — it's formatted as Markdown that adapts to length: a one-liner stays a paragraph, medium-length content gets bullets, longer content gets headers and sub-sections. Bold for emphasis, code blocks for technical content. ### Everything else Apps that don't match a known category (search bars, terminal, address fields) get a plain cleanup — punctuation and casing, no structural rewriting. ## How Amical reads the context Three signals shape what comes out: * **The focused app** — Slack, Mail, your editor, a browser tab. This is the main signal; it picks the formatting ruleset above. * **The focused field's role** — on macOS, accessibility permission lets Amical tell a search bar from a long-form composer, so the same dictation gets shaped differently inside the same app. * **The active language** — auto-detected per recording unless you've pinned one in **Settings → Dictation**. The signal is the focused app, not the words you say. Dictating "send John the report" into a search bar gives you the literal words — Amical doesn't issue actions on your behalf. Granting accessibility permission on macOS improves accuracy by letting Amical read the focused field's role. ## Notes * Formatting needs a language model — without one, the toggle is locked and you'll see "Formatting won't run - no language model available." * Cloud formatting needs cloud speech *and* a signed-in account; switching either off disables it. * The feature is **Alpha** — output can vary run-to-run, and edge cases (mixed languages, very long dictations) are still being tuned. * For per-app *customization* of how formatting behaves — your own presets, tone overrides, custom skills per app — see [Personalization](/docs/personalisation). # Android quick start URL: /docs/android-quick-start How to install Amical for Android — public beta on Google Play. *** title: Android quick start description: How to install Amical for Android — public beta on Google Play. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amical for Android is in public beta on Google Play. 1. Install [Amical from Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai.amical.app) (also linked from the [download page](/download)). 2. Open the app and sign in with your Amical account. 3. When prompted, grant **Accessibility Service**, **Display over other apps**, and microphone access. These let Amical's floating bubble appear over the focused app and insert your dictation. Report bugs on [Discord](https://amical.ai/community) or [GitHub](https://github.com/amicalhq/amical/issues). # Billing URL: /docs/billing Plans, usage, seats, invoices, and how cloud quota actually works. *** title: Billing description: Plans, usage, seats, invoices, and how cloud quota actually works. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billing and plan management live in your Amical account in the browser. The desktop app links into the right page; the subscription itself is edited in the web portal, not inside the desktop app. ## Where to find it * **From the desktop app** — sign in, then in the sidebar under your account, click **Usage & Billing**. Amical opens your account in the browser at the plan page. * **In a browser** — go to **app.amical.ai** and sign in; the Billing tab is in the sidebar under your organization. Plan details are visible to organization owners and admins. Members see usage but can't switch plans or manage payment. ## What's on the plan page The page is laid out in three bands: 1. **Current plan** — the plan name, subscription state (active / trialing / past due / canceled), the biller (Dodo for self-serve, custom for Enterprise), and a **Manage billing** button when applicable. A **Contact us** link goes to support. 2. **Usage metrics** — three cards: Words used, Team seats, and Refresh cadence. 3. **Available plans** — Free, Premium, and Enterprise cards side-by-side with a **Monthly / Yearly** toggle that changes pricing and CTAs. Underneath, there's a per-plan **Inclusions** breakdown and a **Usage** detail panel with the current billing-period dates. ## Plans | Plan | Best for | What you get | Seats | | -------------- | --------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------- | | **Free** | Personal, local-only or light cloud use | Unlimited local dictation, fast cloud models with a weekly cloud word cap (2,000 words/week), custom vocabulary, AI formatting, community support | 1 | | **Premium** | Power users and small teams | Everything in Free + unlimited cloud words, team management, email support, monthly or yearly billing | Small team limit | | **Enterprise** | Larger orgs with security needs | Everything in Premium + dedicated hosting, custom models, ultra-low latency, SSO/SAML, centralized billing, bulk-pricing discounts, dedicated support | Custom | Free is always available; you don't lose anything if you let Premium lapse, you just go back to Free's cloud word cap. ## How cloud words work The **Words used** metric counts words transcribed by the **Amical Cloud** speech model. Local dictation (a Whisper model you've downloaded) is **unlimited and free** on every plan and never counts. Quota has three properties worth knowing: * **Limit** — the plan's word allowance per refresh period. Free is capped (2,000 words/week); Premium is unlimited; Enterprise is unlimited. * **Refresh** — `weekly` on Free, `monthly` on most paid plans, `daily` for some Enterprise contracts, `never` on a few legacy plans. Whatever your plan says, the **Current period starts/ends** dates on the Usage panel are authoritative. * **Scope** — `per-user` (each member has their own quota) or `organization` (the whole org shares one pool, "pooling"). Premium ships per-user; Enterprise can be either. The Usage panel labels this as **"Per-user quota"** or **"Shared across organization"**. When you hit the cloud word limit on Free, cloud transcription stops until the next weekly refresh. Local dictation keeps working — Amical doesn't lock the app, just the cloud speech path. ## Seats **Team seats** counts active members against your plan's seat limit. Pending invitations also count, so the seat is reserved until the invite is accepted, expired, or cancelled. When you try to invite past the limit, the invite fails with a "no seats available" error. Free up a seat (cancel a pending invite, remove a member) or upgrade. See [Team](/docs/team) for how membership and roles work. ## Switching plans Each plan card has a button: * **Free → Premium** opens a checkout flow with your chosen billing interval (monthly or yearly). Yearly billing is discounted vs. monthly. * **Premium → Premium yearly** (or vice versa) also goes through checkout; the proration is handled by the biller. * **Premium → Enterprise** opens a contact path — Enterprise pricing is bespoke. * **Downgrade or cancel** is handled inside the billing portal — see below. Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades and cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period; until then you keep the higher tier. ## Manage billing (invoices, payment method, cancellation) The **Manage billing** button on the plan page opens the Dodo billing portal in a new tab. That's where you: * Update your payment method * View and download invoices * Change your billing email * Cancel your subscription A failed payment puts the subscription into a `past_due` state. The biller automatically retries; if it can't recover, the subscription is canceled and you drop to Free at the end of the grace period. Update your card in the billing portal to recover. The Manage billing button only appears when your subscription is on Dodo (the default biller for self-serve plans). Enterprise customers on a custom contract should email support to make billing changes. ## Enterprise Enterprise covers everything in Premium plus: * **Dedicated hosting** and **custom models** for low-latency, high-throughput use * **Ultra-low latency** routing for real-time dictation * **SSO / SAML** for centralised identity * **Centralized billing** — one bill across all members, no per-seat purchase * **Bulk-pricing discounts** for larger seat counts * **Dedicated support** with response-time commitments Pricing is custom. Click through the Enterprise card on the plan page or email **[support@amical.ai](mailto:support@amical.ai)** to start the conversation. The plan-page header also has a **Contact us** link that goes to the same address. ## Notes * Plan data is fetched live from the Amical auth backend; if the page says **"Plan unavailable"**, you're either not signed in or you're a member (not an owner/admin) on a plan that hides details. Check with your owner. * Yearly billing renews once a year on your subscription anniversary; monthly renews each month on the same date. * The **Refresh** label on the Usage card tells you when your cloud word quota resets — it's separate from the billing renewal date. * Cancelling doesn't delete your data. Notes, vocabulary, and local transcriptions stay on your machine; sign-in and cloud features just stop. # Cloud AI models URL: /docs/cloud-ai-models Use Amical's hosted models — sign in, no local setup. *** title: Cloud AI models description: Use Amical's hosted models — sign in, no local setup. ------------------------------------------------------------------ If you'd rather not download anything or your machine isn't a great fit for local Whisper, use Amical's cloud option. You sign in once, then pick **Amical Cloud** from the same **Default Speech Model** dropdown your local models live in. ## Sign in Open **Settings → AI Models → Speech**. The **Amical Cloud** row in the model table shows a **Sign In** button instead of a download button. Click it, complete the sign-in flow in your browser, and the cloud model becomes selectable. ## What runs in the cloud * **Speech** — your audio gets streamed to Amical's hosted speech endpoint and transcripts come back. * **Language (formatting)** — if you turn on **Formatting Alpha** in Settings → Dictation, the formatting pass also goes through the cloud unless you've pointed Settings → AI Models → Language at a local provider. ## When you need cloud specifically A few features only run against a cloud speech model: * **Formatting Alpha** — rewrites your transcript through a language model. Settings → Dictation surfaces this requirement when you turn the toggle on. * **Reporting a transcription** — the flag icon in **Settings → History** sends a transcription to the team for quality work. Only available on cloud transcripts, and only if Anonymous Telemetry is on. ## Notes * Sign-in is account-based, so your cloud entitlement, custom vocabulary, and preferences follow you across devices. * The local and cloud options aren't exclusive — keep a local Whisper downloaded as a fallback for offline. * Pricing, usage limits, and data handling are documented separately on the Amical website. # Shortcuts URL: /docs/custom-hotkeys The five global shortcuts Amical registers and how to rebind them. *** title: Shortcuts description: The five global shortcuts Amical registers and how to rebind them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amical registers five global shortcuts. They all live under **Settings → Shortcuts**. | Shortcut | Default | What it does | | ------------------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Push to talk** | Fn | Hold to record, release to transcribe and paste. | | **Hands-free mode** | Fn+Space | Press once to start a recording, again to stop. | | **Paste last transcript** | Cmd+Ctrl+V | Re-pastes the most recent transcription into the focused app. | | **New note** | Cmd+Ctrl+N | Opens a fresh note in Amical. | | **Draft** (Alpha) | Fn+Ctrl | Hold to speak an instruction; review the generated text, then insert it. [Amical Cloud only](/docs/draft). | ## 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](/docs/desktop-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](/docs/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. ## Allow injected keystrokes (Windows) Amical only responds to **physical** key presses. Some Windows setups send keystrokes another way — they *inject* them: remote desktop sessions, KVM switches, key remappers like PowerToys, and mouse or macro software that fires a key combo from a button. By default Amical ignores injected keys, so a background tool can't set off your shortcuts by accident. Turn on **Allow injected keystrokes** (under **Settings → Shortcuts**) when you *want* those keys to count — for example, you've bound an Amical shortcut to a mouse-based macro or a macro key, or your keyboard reaches Amical through remote desktop or a KVM and your shortcuts otherwise never fire. Injected keys then count the same as physical ones. Once injected keys are allowed, a tool sending keys in the background can interfere with your shortcuts: * **Setting a shortcut** — the recorder can pick up an injected key you didn't press. * **Triggering a shortcut** — a shortcut can fire on its own, from a tool rather than from you. * **Dictation** — a recording can stop unexpectedly when an injected key trips your Hands-free or Push-to-talk shortcut. If your shortcuts start behaving unexpectedly, turn **Allow injected keystrokes** back off, so Amical again reacts only to keys you physically press. ## 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. # Custom prompts URL: /docs/custom-prompts Bring your own formatting prompt — planned, not yet shipped. *** title: Custom prompts description: Bring your own formatting prompt — planned, not yet shipped. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Custom prompts aren't configurable in Amical yet. The plan is to let you write the prompt that shapes how your transcript gets rewritten — so you can ask for "no contractions", "Slack-friendly", "always start emails with a greeting on its own line", or anything else specific to how you write. What ships today is the **Formatting** toggle in Settings → Dictation (Alpha). It's an on/off switch with a fixed prompt; it requires a cloud speech model and a signed-in account, and the model picker lives under Settings → AI Models → Language. There's no place to edit the prompt itself yet. ## Track progress * [GitHub issues](https://github.com/amicalhq/amical/issues) — share the prompts you'd want * [Discord](https://amical.ai/community) # Vocabulary URL: /docs/custom-vocabulary Teach Amical the words and replacements that matter to you. *** title: Vocabulary description: Teach Amical the words and replacements that matter to you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If Amical keeps mishearing a name, an acronym, or a piece of jargon, add it here and the speech model will know to listen for it. You can also map common misspellings to the spelling you actually want. Open **Settings → Vocabulary** and click **Add Word**. ## Two modes The dialog has a **Replacement** toggle: * **Off (single word)** — type the word as you want Amical to spell it. Good for proper nouns ("Kubernetes", "Anthropic"), acronyms, and jargon. * **On (replacement)** — type the misheard form on the left and the correct form on the right (`acme corp` → `Acme Corp`). Anything Amical transcribes matching the left side gets swapped for the right. ## Edit or delete Hover any row in the list to show edit and delete buttons. Edits use the same dialog. Delete asks for confirmation. ## Notes * Entries take effect on your next recording — no restart. * Vocabulary is per-account, so it follows you across machines once you sign in. * The list is paged at 100 entries; the search and sort happen client-side within that window. # Desktop widget URL: /docs/desktop-widget The floating pill that starts a hands-free recording with one click. *** title: Desktop widget description: The floating pill that starts a hands-free recording with one click. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The widget is a small floating element that sits on top of every other window. Click it once to start a hands-free recording, click the stop icon to end it. ## States * **Idle** — a thin pill, 8 px tall. Click-through is disabled until you hover, so you won't trigger it by mistake. * **Hovered** — expands so you can hit the click target. * **Recording (hands-free)** — wider, with a 6-bar waveform that pulses with your voice and a red stop icon. Click the stop icon to end the recording. * **With notes shortcut** — if the notes feature flag is on, hovering reveals a small notebook icon next to the main button. Click it to open the notes window. ## Show or hide it **Settings → Preferences → Show widget while inactive** controls whether the widget is on screen when you're not recording. On by default. Turn it off if you only want the widget visible during a recording — push-to-talk and the global shortcuts still work either way. ## Notes * The widget is draggable; macOS and Windows remember its position between launches. * Clicking it triggers the same code path as your hands-free shortcut, so the 6-minute cap and the 5-second silence auto-stop apply here too. # AI dictation URL: /docs/dictation How Amical turns your voice into text in any app. *** title: AI dictation description: How Amical turns your voice into text in any app. -------------------------------------------------------------- You hold a key, talk, and the words paste into whatever has focus. That's it. Everything below is the knobs around that loop. ## Two ways to dictate * **Push to talk** — hold the shortcut (default **Fn**), talk, release. Amical pastes when you let go. * **Hands-free mode** — press the shortcut (default **Fn+Space**) once to start, again to stop. Useful for longer passages or when you don't want to keep a key held. Both are bound under **Settings → Shortcuts**. See [Shortcuts](/docs/custom-hotkeys) for when to use which. ## Settings that matter Open **Settings → Dictation** to find: * **Auto detect language** — on by default. Amical figures out the language each time. Turn it off to lock to one language; the **Languages** picker below the toggle activates when you do. * **Microphone** — pick the input device. Defaults to the system default. The list shows every audio input macOS or Windows reports. * **Formatting** (marked **Alpha**) — runs your transcript through a language model to add punctuation and structure, and adapts the output to the app you're typing into. Needs a local language model or a signed-in Amical Cloud session. See [AI formatting](/docs/ai-formatting) for the full picture, including per-app behaviour and the model picker. ## Limits * Single recording capped at 6 minutes (Amical warns at 5 and stops at 6). * If Amical hears no audio for 5 seconds, it stops the recording. * A push-to-talk press shorter than 500 ms is treated as a slip and discarded. ## Pre-loading the model **Settings → Advanced → Preload Whisper Model** keeps the local model warm in memory. First-press latency drops; idle RAM goes up. On by default. # Draft URL: /docs/draft Speak an instruction, review the generated text, then insert it. Amical Cloud only. *** title: Draft description: Speak an instruction, review the generated text, then insert it. Amical Cloud only. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Plain dictation pastes your words the moment you stop. Draft is different: you speak an *instruction*, Amical generates the text, and it waits in a review window so you can read it before anything lands in your document. Today Draft works only on Amical Cloud. Select **Amical Cloud** as your speech model under **Settings → AI Models → Speech** (see [Cloud AI models](/docs/cloud-ai-models)). With an on-device speech model selected, the Draft shortcut only transcribes your words, like normal dictation. On-device speech models will work with Draft soon, as long as you have a formatting (language) model configured under **Settings → AI Models → Language**. Draft is marked **Alpha**: it ships and works, but the behaviour may still change. ## How to use 1. Hold the **Draft** shortcut — default **Fn+Ctrl** on macOS, **Ctrl+Win+Alt** on Windows. 2. Speak your instruction, for example "reply that I'll join the call five minutes late." 3. Release the key. Amical generates a draft and opens the review window. 4. Press **Enter** to insert it into whatever app has focus.