Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
Voice input most often fails for one of a few typical reasons: the microphone is off or taken by another app, the language pack is not installed, a cloud service has no internet, or the hotkey conflicts with another program. The same reasons apply to Potok (potok.now), plus one more: the free limit of 2500 words per week has run out, and then dictation also goes silent with no error on screen.
Voice input goes silent exactly when you need to dictate an email quickly, and instead of text the field stays empty. It is doubly annoying if everything worked fine yesterday. In most cases the cause is one of a few typical ones, and you can sort it out in a couple of minutes if you check things in order.
Where the problems in this topic come from
The first and most common cause is the microphone. It may be physically disconnected, taken by another app in exclusive mode (a video call, screen recording) or simply not selected as the default device in the system settings. In that case the voice input program receives no sound at all, even if the hotkey fires correctly.
The second is system permissions. Starting with certain versions of Windows and macOS, microphone access has to be allowed separately for each app, and after a system update this permission is sometimes reset without warning. The program looks installed and ready, but the sound physically never reaches it.
The third is the recognition language. If the wrong language pack is installed, or English is selected in the settings instead of Russian, voice input either does not start or recognizes speech incorrectly, confusing it with another language.
The fourth cause applies only to cloud services: no internet. Such programs send the sound to a server for recognition, and without a network the hotkey fires but no text appears, which is easy to mistake for a fault in the program itself.
The fifth is a hotkey conflict with another app. If the same key combination is already taken by another program, voice input may not activate at all or may turn on in a different window than the one you expect.
The sixth cause is rarer than the others but also typical: an outdated version of the program itself. Developers sometimes change how the program works with the system in an update, and an old version stops interacting correctly with the current build of the operating system.
- Windows 11 voice input in Russian does not work: Something went wrong, all causes
- How to open the dictation toolbar in Windows
- Windows 11 voice input does not work
- Voice input disappeared in Windows: how to get it back
- Dictation on Mac and iPhone does not work in Russian: what to do
- “Dictation isn't available in this language” (Russian): what to do
- How to add Russian speech recognition in Windows 10 Home
- Can I install Russian for voice input in Windows 11 Pro myself
- iPhone dictation does not work
- Voice input in Word with Win+H does not work
- Dictation unavailable on Apple Watch: causes and what to do
- Voice input stopped working on iPhone: it is not the internet
- Win+H not working: causes on Windows 10 and Windows 11
- Windows says dictation is unavailable in Russian
- Voice input errors on Android: where to start
- Voice input errors: Apple
- Voice input not working in an app or browser: an overview of errors
- Voice input on Huawei: typical errors and causes
- Voice message transcription errors in messengers
- Voice input errors: microphone and headset
- Voice input errors on the Samsung keyboard: a breakdown
- Voice input errors: Windows, an analysis by topic
- Voice input errors: Xiaomi
- Why Google voice input does not work
All articles in this section (57): potok.now/oshibki
When the program is not to blame
Sometimes the cause is not voice input at all but the field you are trying to insert text into. There are fields where insertion is technically impossible for any program: passwords, some protected forms of banking services, certain game interfaces in full-screen mode. Neither reinstalling nor switching programs helps here: it is a limitation of the field itself, not a failure.
Potok is a cloud service: it does not work without the internet, and without a working microphone there is simply nothing to recognize. Both conditions are required, not one or the other. This is not a fault but a feature of the architecture: the sound has to reach the server to come back as text.
The same goes for situations where the computer physically cannot hear you: speech that is too quiet, a microphone that is far away, or a room so noisy that the voice gets lost in the background sound. This is not a software problem but a question of recording conditions.
Where to go next
- If the error is specifically on Windows 11, the article voice input unavailable on Windows 11 covers the common causes for that version of the system.
- If the microphone and permissions are fine but the recognition result is simply poor (it does not stay silent, it makes mistakes), that is a separate category of problems, not about “not working” but about accuracy.
- If Win+H turns on but stops responding after a few minutes of work, that is a separate case, covered in the article Win+H voice input stopped working after 5 minutes.
- If none of the typical cases fits, check the specific app separately: some programs handle text insertion differently from most.
Frequently asked questions
Usually it is not “for no reason” but an unnoticed change: the system updated and reset the microphone permission, another app took the microphone exclusively, or a cloud service lost its internet connection. Check exactly these things in order instead of reinstalling the program right away.
Make sure the microphone physically works and is not taken by another program (a call, a recording), that the system allows the app to use the microphone, and that there is internet if the service is cloud-based. These three points cover most cases.
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 turns speech into text on the fly: the user speaks, 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 this works through a hotkey: hold it, speak, release, and the text is inserted.
Dictation pays off most for long texts written in one go, such as email drafts, notes, messenger replies and 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.
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.
Download Potok
Works with a single key in any program. 14 days of full access, then Free with 2500 words per week or Pro at 690 ₽/mo (499 ₽/mo paid yearly). 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.
Related software: terms compared
| Service | Platforms | Free | Price | Payment from Russia | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potok | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free: 2500 words per week; full access for the first 14 days, no card needed | Pro 690 ₽/mo, 499 ₽/mo when paid yearly | Russian bank cards, rubles | cloud, servers in Russia; internet required |
| SpeakFlow | Windows, Web | 30 minutes of dictation per month, free forever | 690 ₽/mo (Personal (unlimited)) | rubles directly | cloud (the data center country is not disclosed on the website) (not confirmed) |
| Diktuy | Windows, macOS | 30 minutes of dictation per month, free forever | 239 ₽/mo (Profi (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)); 2870 ₽/yr (Profi (year, billed in full)); 479 ₽/mo (Max (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)) | rubles directly (not confirmed) | cloud (the data center country is not disclosed on the website) (not confirmed) |
| Talkpad | macOS, Windows, Android | 2500 words/week on desktop, 1500 words/week on mobile, free forever; plus a 14-day Pro trial | $6/mo (Pro (billed yearly, $72/yr)); $8/mo (Pro (monthly billing)) | unknown (not confirmed) | cloud (the legal entity is registered in Australia; the website is hosted on Cloudflare; the exact location of the ASR servers is not disclosed in the privacy policy) (not confirmed) |
| Voisty | Windows, macOS | 5 minutes of transcription (to judge the quality) | $6.7/mo (Pro); $67/yr (Pro (year)); $99/one-time (Lifetime) | Visa/Mastercard/Amex cards, PayPal; whether Russian cards are accepted is not stated (not confirmed) | device (offline, local models such as Whisper Large V3 Turbo / NVIDIA Parakeet) |
| WhispeRu | Windows | 7-day free trial (no card) | 290 ₽/mo (monthly license); 1990 ₽/yr (yearly license); 4990 ₽/one-time (lifetime license) | rubles directly (payment via YooKassa) | device (offline) |
| GigaType | Windows, macOS | free with no limits: open source under the MIT license (Copyright (c) 2026 Disrupt Builders), all features are available without payment | — | not needed: there are no paid plans | device (offline, Sber's GigaAM neural network) |
| Molvi | Windows, macOS | free forever, no accounts and no payment | — | not needed: the product is free; voluntary donations are accepted via Telegram Tribute or by card on the website, amounts are not fixed | device (offline; best quality on an NVIDIA GPU, otherwise a fast model on the CPU) |
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: speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · blog.speakflow.ru