Hands-Free Mode (Long Dictation)

Hands-free mode locks recording on, so you can talk without holding the key. It suits anything longer than a sentence or two, such as a blog post, a long email, or meeting notes. It works when your recording mode is Push to Talk.

How to record without holding the key

1. Press and release. Press your recording keybind and let go.
2. Press again. Press it a second time within half a second of the first press.

The recording bar changes to show that recording is locked on. If it does not change, the second press came too late, and the recording ends as usual. Try the second press a little quicker.

Lock a recording you are already holding

Already holding your recording keybind and want to let go? Keep holding it and press Space. The recording bar changes to show that recording is locked on, and you can let go of the keybind. The Space press is used to lock the recording, so it is normally not typed into your app.

• It works at any point while you hold the keybind, including the first second.
• It works in Push to Talk when your keybind is a modifier key used on its own, such as the right Option key, which is the default.
• Press Space with only your recording modifier held and Caps Lock off. A different modifier, such as Shift with Option, prevents locking. Left and right keys of the same modifier count as one.
• It does not work when your keybind is a combination of keys, or in Toggle mode. It also does not work while macOS Secure Input is on, which some password fields turn on, because EnviousWispr cannot see the Space then.
• Some macOS shortcuts also use Space with a modifier key, such as Command+Space for Spotlight. If your keybind is that modifier key, macOS may react to the Space as well. If that happens, choose another keybind, or change that macOS shortcut in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts.
• If the recording bar does not show that recording is locked on, do not rely on releasing the key to finish. Click Stop in the main EnviousWispr window to finish and paste, or press your cancel keybind, Escape by default, to stop without pasting.

In Toggle mode you do not need this. One press starts recording and the next press stops it. See Toggle Mode.

Stop a hands-free recording

• Press your recording keybind once. Recording stops and your text goes into the app you were working in.
• Press Escape. Recording stops and nothing is pasted. By default EnviousWispr keeps what you said and offers it back, which is Escape Recovery.
• Click Cancel in the main EnviousWispr window, next to Stop, to throw the recording away. The floating recording bar has no Cancel button.

A third quick press, within half a second of your first press, cancels a recording you locked with a double press. After either kind of lock, other presses in the half second right after it locks do nothing, so a bounce of your finger does not end the recording.

How long can a hands-free recording be?

A single recording can last up to one hour. EnviousWispr warns you one minute before the limit. Then it stops on its own and writes out everything you said.

Stop recording when I stop talking

You can have EnviousWispr end a recording after a pause in your speech. The auto-stop guide covers it in full.

1. Click the EnviousWispr icon in your menu bar and choose Open EnviousWispr.
2. Open Dictation Settings, then Engine.
3. Under Applies to both engines, switch on Stop recording on silence. It is off by default.
4. Use the Pause duration slider to choose how long a pause ends the recording, from half a second to three seconds.