Tap. One press of your record shortcut starts recording, and the next press stops it and types the transcript out.
Releases are ignored, so nothing depends on how long you hold the keys.
Hold or Tap
- Hold (default). Records while the shortcut is held, stops on release. Best for short bursts, and it cannot leave a recording running by accident.
- Tap. Press once to start, press again to stop. Best for long-form dictation.
Stopping and canceling
The Cancel shortcut ships unbound because a global
Esc would swallow Esc presses meant for other apps whenever a recording is active. Record a key for it in Settings → General → Recording. The row is hidden on Linux, where re-registering a dynamic shortcut is unreliable.
In the assistant panel, a voice turn can also be ended with the Finish & send button, so a hands-free question can be committed without touching the keyboard.
Good to know
What the overlay looks like in hands-free mode
What the overlay looks like in hands-free mode
When a hands-free recording starts, the overlay pill switches to a calmer, slightly larger waveform. Screen readers announce “Recording hands-free, press the hotkey again to stop.”There is no stop button on the overlay. Press the shortcut again.
Tap-to-lock does not work in this build
Tap-to-lock does not work in this build
A mid-recording tap-to-lock gesture exists in the settings file: tapping
Shift or Space while holding the shortcut was meant to convert a held recording to hands-free.Nothing arms the watcher, so the gesture does nothing and there is no control for it in Settings. Use the Tap recording behavior above instead.