Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
For the web version of Google Keep, the help describes no separate voice text input feature. You can dictate a note there with the Potok app (potok.now), which recognizes about 900 characters per minute versus about 200 when typing. On Android and iPhone/iPad, Keep has its own voice recording: Create → Recording → Speak.
Do you make short notes and to-do lists in Google Keep all day? Let us work out how much time dictation saves compared with typing on a keyboard. A similar estimate works for other note services too, for example Evernote or Microsoft OneNote.
| Task | Characters | Typing (200 chars/min) | Voice (900 chars/min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| chat reply | 300 | 2 min | 0.5 min |
| 1500 | 8 min | 1.7 min | |
| post or meeting minutes | 4000 | 20 min | 4.4 min |
| article | 10000 | 50 min | 11.1 min |
Where these minutes come from
The estimate is built on the difference in speed: by voice Potok recognizes about 900 characters per minute, while ordinary typing on a keyboard is about 200. A typical note in Keep is a short shopping list, an item in the day's plan or a thought of a couple of sentences, usually from 100 to 300 characters.
Typing such a note takes about a minute, and you can dictate it in 15-20 seconds, including a pause to release the hotkey. The difference on one note is small, but over a dozen notes a day it turns into a noticeable saving of minutes that would otherwise go on typing text letter by letter.
Where the benefit is most noticeable
- A shopping list or a list of things for the day that you dictate whole in one go, rather than typing one item at a time and switching between lines and the keyboard.
- A note on the move, between meetings or on the way, when it is awkward to type with two hands or there is simply no time to sit down at a keyboard and concentrate on typing.
- An idea or thought that it is important to capture at once, before it is lost and forgotten behind the next task.
- A long list of tasks for the working day: typing each item separately with a line break is slower than dictating the whole list in a row, and Potok will place the punctuation between items itself.
- A note dictated right during a call or a meeting, when your hands are busy and you need to capture what was said at once, without being distracted by switching windows.
Where the estimate does not hold
On Android and iPhone/iPad, Google Keep already has its own voice recording: the Recording and Speak buttons in a note, and no separate app is needed for that. The time estimate through Potok is most useful for the web version of Keep on a computer, where the help describes no such feature.
Potok is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet. It has no offline mode and no voice commands, and 2500 words per week are free on one device. For someone who makes dozens of notes a day in Keep, this limit may not be enough.
Frequently asked questions
The help describes no separate voice text input feature for the web version of Google Keep. There is only voice recording in the Android and iPhone/iPad apps: in a note, Create, then Recording and Speak.
Potok states about 900 characters per minute by voice versus about 200 when typing, roughly 4 times faster. This is the product's own estimate, not an independent measurement.
Yes. Windows has built-in voice input on Win+H (Russian only in Windows 11, no Russian in Windows 10; it does not work without the internet), and on a Mac there is system dictation in the keyboard settings. Both are free.
By a model estimate, the average dictation speed with Potok is about 900 characters per minute versus about 200 characters per minute with ordinary typing, so speech is noticeably faster than the keyboard.
Voice input converts speech to text on the fly: the user speaks, and the program transcribes the sound with speech recognition technology (ASR) and inserts the resulting text into the active field, such as email, a messenger or a document. In Potok it works through a hotkey: hold it, speak, release, and the text is inserted.
Dictation pays off most for long texts written off the cuff: email drafts, notes, replies in messengers, lecture notes, and also when your hands are busy or tired (for example with RSI). For short precise edits (one-word commands, code), typing is often faster.
If you want to compare for yourself
Take one of your own tasks and dictate it in Potok. The first 14 days have no limits and need no card. Potok is a cloud service: speech is recognized on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokA voice message from a messenger or a call recording can be forwarded to the bot @potok_now_bot, and it sends back the text. The bot is part of the same subscription as the Potok app.
Built-in dictation and Potok
| Tool | Where it works | Russian language | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows voice typing (Win+H) | Windows 10 and 11 | Windows 11 only | Microsoft cloud, does not work offline |
| macOS Dictation | macOS | yes | on the device or on Apple servers |
| Potok | Windows, macOS, Linux | primary language | cloud, servers in Russia, does not work offline |
Primary sources: keep.google.com · support.google.com · support.google.com