Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
A lawyer prepares statements of claim, appeals and legal assistance agreements: long texts with set wording that is easier to dictate than to type. Potok (potok.now) is a desktop voice input app for Windows, macOS and Linux: it recognizes speech in the cloud, and terms like "advokatskaya tayna" (lawyer's professional secrecy) can be added to a personal dictionary on Pro. For the first 14 days all features are free.
A statement of claim, an appeal, a legal assistance agreement: for a lawyer this is daily text work, and every document has plenty of set wording that is faster to say than to type.
How to build a personal dictionary for a legal practice
- Dictate the way you usually speak at a client meeting or in court. Set phrases like "advokatskaya tayna" (lawyer's professional secrecy) or "prezumptsiya nevinovnosti" (presumption of innocence) are recognized by a model trained on Russian speech.
- A term that was recognized not the way you need, such as a rare surname, an abbreviation or wording like "sushchestvennoye uslovie dogovora" (essential term of a contract), add to the personal dictionary in Potok's settings. The feature is available on the Pro subscription.
- The added term is taken into account in the next dictation, and recognition of this word becomes more accurate.
- Add to the dictionary as you work, with the names of clients, the names of courts and instances, and wording from specific cases that repeat from document to document.
- Check the dictionary from time to time: outdated or one-off entries can be removed, and frequently used terms will stay at hand for the next dictation.
Which documents a lawyer dictates by voice
Three documents are especially long and text-heavy for a lawyer: a statement of claim, an appeal and a legal assistance agreement. Each has many standard formulations, and typing by hand takes time that is better spent on the case itself. When you dictate, Potok places punctuation and capital letters itself and writes numbers, amounts and times in digits: "dvesti pyatdesyat rubley" (two hundred fifty rubles) becomes "250 ₽", and "chetyrnadtsat tridtsat" (fourteen thirty) becomes "14:30", which is handy when listing the amounts of claims or hearing times. If the text of an agreement or an appeal is prepared right in an editor, how dictating a contract in a Word document works is covered separately.
| What | Examples |
|---|---|
| Documents | statement of claim, appeal, legal assistance agreement |
| Terms | advokatskaya tayna (lawyer's professional secrecy), prezumptsiya nevinovnosti (presumption of innocence), sushchestvennoye uslovie dogovora (essential term of a contract) |
What Potok does not do for a specialist
Lawyer's professional secrecy consists of any information related to a lawyer providing legal assistance to a client, and it cannot be disclosed without the client's consent (Art. 8, sub-para. 5 of para. 4 of Art. 6 of Law 63-FZ). This should be considered before you dictate aloud materials with such information into any program. Potok is a cloud service: recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without an internet connection. It has no offline mode and no voice commands for editing text. Organizations that are forbidden to pass data to the cloud at all need only the business variant, with servers inside the company perimeter. Voice input in other legal specialties is covered in the section voice input for legal professions.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, Potok has a personal dictionary on the Pro plan: you add terms, names and wording there, such as "sushchestvennoye uslovie dogovora" (essential term of a contract). The model itself is trained for Russian speech, including terms. The feature is available on the Pro subscription.
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.
Yes: Windows has built-in voice typing via Win+H (Russian only in Windows 11, Windows 10 has no Russian; it does not work without the internet), and the Mac has system dictation in the keyboard settings. Both are free.
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.
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.
Built-in system tools (Win+H in Windows, Dictation in macOS, Voice Typing in Google Docs, Gboard on Android), voice browser extensions, and specialized desktop and web services (Potok and similar) that work on top of any app via a hotkey.
How to start
Potok is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. For two weeks everything is open for free, after that 2500 words per week without paying. Potok is a cloud service: speech is recognized on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokOne subscription, two tools: dictation in any program on your computer and @potok_now_bot in Telegram, which transcribes voice messages, audio and video.
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