Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
With dyslexia, putting a thought straight into writing and typing it without typos is often harder than simply saying it aloud. Voice input turns speech into text without typing letter by letter; the final text is still worth rereading and correcting. Potok (potok.now) inserts the dictated text into the active field with one hotkey; the first 14 days are available free with no limits.
Dyslexia is a learning difference in which reading and writing are harder than speaking. In this sense the voice is easier than the hands: to get a phrase on the screen, it is enough to say the thought as a whole, rather than assemble it from letters in writing. Related topics for other professions and situations are in the overview of voice input by profession.
When it is harder to write a thought than to say it
Three situations occur with dyslexia more often than others: it is hard to put a thought into written form at once, typos appear when typing fast, and it is easier to say a text aloud than to type it letter by letter. In all three the voice helps in the same way: dictating a thought aloud can be easier than typing it letter by letter.
The voice removes the very step of “assembling letters into a word”: the text appears from the spoken phrase as a whole. This does not make the text ready: what you get is still worth rereading and correcting, like any dictated text. How to dictate text where Russian is mixed with English words is covered by the example of dictation for programmers.
How to set up voice input for dyslexia
- Open the window you need and click where the text should go: a document, an email or a chat.
- Hold the hotkey, Ctrl+Space by default; in Potok's settings you can change it to any other key combination or a side mouse button.
- Say the thought as a whole, without trying to type it at the same time: recognition runs on Potok's servers in Russia.
- Release the hotkey: the text appears where the cursor was, and the program places punctuation and capital letters by itself, so you do not need to dictate “tochka” (period) or “zapyataya” (comma).
- Read the resulting text and correct what is needed: dictated text, like typed text, is worth rechecking before sending.
| 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 |
What dictation will not replace
Dictation does not cure dyslexia and does not replace learning to read and write; it is only another way to get text without assembling it from letters one by one. The final text still has to be reread and corrected: Potok has no voice commands for editing, so corrections are made by hand. Potok is a cloud service: the voice goes to servers in Russia for recognition, and it does not work without the internet. There is no such dictation on a phone or tablet: Potok has no apps for Android and iPhone. It also has no voice commands for controlling the computer, only insertion of dictated text where the cursor is.
Frequently asked questions
No: dictation does not cure dyslexia and does not replace learning to read and write; it is only a way to get text without typing it letter by letter.
Yes: the final text is worth rereading and correcting, like any dictated text. Potok has no voice commands for editing, so corrections are made by hand.
Any microphone the system sees as a recording device will do. In Potok you choose it in the app settings or in the tray icon menu; system access to the microphone is required.
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.
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.
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.
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: support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com