3 min read
How to dictate like a pro: nine habits for cleaner first drafts
Dictation is a skill, and like any skill it rewards a few good habits. Here's how experienced dictators think before, during and after they speak.
Read articleHow it works
From thought to text in three steps.
Speak naturally, let Wisper refine it, and get on with your day. Here's what happens at each step, and what happens to your data along the way.
The three steps
Step 1: Start speaking
Activate Wisper and talk the way you'd explain something to a colleague.
- No training session and no voice profile to set up. Wisper works with natural speech from the first minute.
- Pause to think, change your mind mid-sentence, or circle back. You don't need to sound polished.
- Wisper listens only while dictation is active, and you can always see when it is.
Step 2: Let AI refine it
Wisper turns what you said into what you meant to write.
- Speech recognition converts your audio into words, using your custom vocabulary for names and terms.
- A language model then removes fillers and false starts, resolves self-corrections, and punctuates by meaning.
- Your tone, facts and phrasing are preserved. Wisper makes minimal edits rather than rewriting you.
Step 3: Keep moving
Clean text is ready moments after you stop speaking.
- Use it straight away in the email, document or message you're working on.
- Give important writing a quick read, as you would anything you type. Most of the time there's nothing to change.
- By default the audio is already gone. Only the text you asked for remains.
Under the hood
What happens in the seconds after you speak.
- 01
Capture
Audio is recorded only while dictation is active and sent over an encrypted connection.
Encrypted in transit
- 02
Recognise
Speech recognition turns sound into words, guided by the vocabulary you've taught it.
Audio deleted after processing
- 03
Understand
A language model reads the whole passage to work out your intent, including corrections and emphasis.
Never used for training without opt-in
- 04
Deliver
Refined text comes back to you, formatted and ready to use wherever you're writing.
Yours to keep, export or delete
See the difference
The same thought, spoken and written.
Real-world dictation is messy. Pick an example to see what Wisper does with it.
Replying to a client between meetings
What you say
“hi Sam um thanks for sending this over so I had a look and I think the the proposal is mostly fine but can we, actually let's move the kickoff to the fifteenth instead of the tenth because our design lead is out that week”
What you get
Hi Sam, Thanks for sending this over. I've had a look and the proposal is mostly fine, but can we move the kickoff to the 15th instead of the 10th? Our design lead is out that week.
A summary sent straight after a call
What you say
“okay quick summary of today so we agreed to push the launch by a week to finish the design review, Anil owns the new timeline by Wednesday, and um the open question is whether we still need legal to sign off on the pricing page, Priya is going to check”
What you get
Quick summary of today: • We agreed to push the launch by a week to finish the design review. • Anil owns the updated timeline, due Wednesday. • Open question: do we still need legal sign-off on the pricing page? Priya will check.
An async status update in team chat
What you say
“so update on the onboarding project, the new flow is basically done and it's in testing, uh we found two bugs on mobile which we're fixing today, and we're still on track for Friday I think, yeah on track for Friday”
What you get
Update on the onboarding project: the new flow is done and in testing. We found two bugs on mobile, which we're fixing today. We're still on track for Friday.
An engineer explaining a system
What you say
“so the billing service retries failed payments three times, um, with a backoff, first after an hour then six hours then a day, and if all three fail it it flags the account and sends the customer an email, it doesn't cancel anything automatically”
What you get
The billing service retries failed payments three times with increasing backoff: after one hour, after six hours, and after one day. If all three attempts fail, it flags the account and emails the customer. It never cancels anything automatically.
Your first week
Build the habit in a few days.
- Day 1
Teach it your words
Add the names, products and acronyms you use most to your vocabulary.
- Day 2
Start with replies
Dictate email and chat replies that need more than a line. They're the quickest win.
- Day 3
Capture meetings
Send a spoken summary straight after your next call, while it's fresh.
- Day 5
Draft something long
Talk through a first draft of a proposal, report or doc, then refine it by hand.
Go deeper
Learn more about writing with your voice.
4 min read
Beyond transcription: how AI turns speech into writing
Speech and writing are different languages that share a vocabulary. Here's what happens between the words you say and the text you send.
Read article4 min read
Speaking vs. typing: what the research actually says about writing speed
We talk roughly three times faster than we type, but speed isn't the whole story. A look at the studies, the caveats, and what it means for how you write.
Read articleStart writing at the speed of thought.
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