Live Preview
Seeing your words on screen while you are still speaking.
Live Preview shows your words in the recording pill while you are still speaking, so you can see that EnviousWispr is hearing you. It is on unless you switch it off. On a Mac that cannot run it, EnviousWispr behaves as though it were off: you get the ordinary recording bar and no message.
It is only a preview. The words in the pill are a rough draft from a second, lighter engine. They are thrown away when the recording ends, and they never change a character of the text that gets pasted. That text comes from the main engine, which is more accurate.
Your voice and preview text stay on your Mac.
Where the setting lives
Open settings. Click the EnviousWispr menu bar icon and select Settings, or press Cmd+,.
Go to Live Preview. Under Record, click Live Preview.
Show words while I speak is the toggle there, on unless you switch it off. The card at the top of the page tells you whether the preview is ready, and if it is not, what is missing.
Live Preview is not Faster Transcription
These are two different settings and it is easy to mix them up.
| Live Preview | Faster Transcription | |
|---|---|---|
| What you see | Words in the recording pill, on screen | Text written into your document |
| Where it goes | Nowhere. It is discarded when you stop | Straight into whatever you are typing in |
| Changes your result | No | Yes, it is the result |
| Where to find it | Settings, Record, Live Preview | Settings, Transcription |
If you want to watch your words appear as you talk without anything being written yet, you want Live Preview. If you want text landing in your document before you finish speaking, you want Faster Transcription.
Choosing an engine
The preview needs its own small engine, separate from the one that produces your final text. There are two, and you pick one on the same settings page.
Apple is built into macOS. There is nothing extra to download for the engine itself. It needs macOS 26 or later, and it only recognises languages your Mac has installed. Most Macs arrive with a handful. Any others are a download. Open Browse beside Languages on the same settings page to add one.
Universal works on macOS 14 and later and covers more languages. It needs one optional 217 MB download, which only starts when you ask for it. You can remove it again later from the same card to get the space back.
If you are on macOS 26 and Apple supports your language, use Apple immediately if its pack is installed, or open Browse beside Languages to add that pack. Choose Universal on older macOS versions, or when Apple does not support your language.
Which language the preview uses
This works differently on the two engines, and the difference only matters if your dictation language is set to Auto.
On Apple, the preview follows the language you picked for dictation, under Transcription. On Auto it has nothing to follow yet, because it must commit to one language before you say your first word, so it goes by your Mac’s language instead. Dictation still understands whatever you actually speak. Only the words on screen may come out in the wrong language until you pick one. You can change it from the Live Preview page by clicking the language at the top of the page, which sets your dictation language everywhere, not just the preview.
On Universal, it depends on the same setting. If you have picked a language for dictation, the preview uses that one. If your dictation language is Auto, this engine works out the language itself as you speak, so Auto is not a problem for it. Either way, clicking the language at the top of the page changes it if it is wrong.
The Languages row is Apple’s, so it only appears with the Apple engine selected; Browse opens the full catalogue, starting with the languages your Mac does not have yet. The language itself sits at the top of the page for both engines and is clickable whenever Live Preview is switched on. The picker lists Auto-detect at the top, so you can hand the choice back to the app as easily as you took it.
If you see no words at all
Work down this list.
Check the card at the top of the settings page. It says whether the preview is off, ready, waiting for a download, or unavailable for your language. That answers most cases on its own.
Check the language. If you are speaking one language and the preview is set to another, the pill stays empty rather than showing wrong words. This is the most common cause. Pick your language under Transcription, or by clicking the language at the top of the Live Preview page.
Check whether the language is downloaded. On the Apple engine, a language your Mac does not have needs downloading first. The top of the page says so and offers Browse downloads, which opens the catalogue with that language already searched for. Until you download it, there is nothing to show.
Check that Faster Transcription is off. On the Universal engine, the preview steps aside while Faster Transcription is running, so your main dictation keeps its full speed. The top of the page says so when this is why.
Your dictation is unaffected in every one of these cases. An empty preview never means a lost recording.