Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
On a Mac, punctuation in voice dictation usually has to be said as a word (in Russian “zapyataya” for comma, “tochka” for period, “tire” for dash) from Apple's official Dictation list. Automatic punctuation without commands works at Apple only for some languages, and Russian is not on that list. Potok (potok.now) places punctuation and capital letters itself, so you do not need to dictate them separately; Potok has a WER of 2.1% on our benchmark.
Voice input with punctuation on a Mac is dictating text in which marks appear either from a command word or on their own, without a single extra sound. In the built-in Mac Dictation, these two ways work differently depending on the language.
Manual and automatic punctuation in voice input on Mac
On a Mac, punctuation in dictation works in one of two ways, and it is worth telling them apart before going into the steps.
- Manual punctuation: you say the mark aloud (in Russian “zapyataya” for comma, “tochka” for period, “tire” for dash), and Dictation inserts exactly that mark in that place. The list of such words in Russian for Mac is fixed and official: it is the Punctuation section on Apple's page about commands for dictating text.
- Automatic punctuation: Dictation itself decides where to place a mark, without it being said aloud. Apple's list of languages for this function is limited, and Russian is not on it on the official macOS availability page.
- Dictation is the name of the speech recognition function built into macOS, through which both ways work, the manual one and the automatic one.
How to dictate text with punctuation on a Mac
- Turn on the built-in Dictation on your Mac. This step is covered in detail in the article how to turn on voice input on a Mac.
- Put the cursor in place and start Dictation: with the microphone key, the dictation keyboard shortcut or through Edit → Start Dictation.
- While dictating a phrase, at the right place say the mark as a word from the official Russian list of commands: “zapyataya” (comma), “tochka” (period), “voprositelnyy znak” (question mark), “vosklitsatelnyy znak” (exclamation mark), “dvoetochie” (colon), “tochka s zapyatoy” (semicolon), “tire” (dash), “defis” (hyphen), “mnogotochie” (ellipsis), and an opening or closing “kavychka” (quotation mark) or “skobka” (bracket).
- Continue the phrase with ordinary words.
The general path from choosing a way of voice input to the habit of dictating every day is collected in the section guide to voice input.
Does Potok help here
Potok does not help with figuring out Dictation's command words on a Mac. It is a separate desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux, not tied to the system settings. Potok has no voice commands: it does not understand “zapyataya” or “tochka” as a separate command, but it also does not ask you to say them. It places punctuation and capital letters itself during ordinary dictation by hotkey. Potok is a cloud service, recognition on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet. It also has no offline mode, no apps for Android and iPhone and no translation between languages.
Frequently asked questions
No. Russian is not on Apple's official list of languages for automatic punctuation. In Russian dictation you say the mark as a word, for example “tochka” (period) or “zapyataya” (comma), from the list of commands.
The built-in macOS Dictation supports Russian. Potok is a separate app with its own model trained for Russian speech, including terms and Russian mixed with English; the text is inserted into the active field of any app.
Yes. System Dictation in macOS is present on Intel Macs too; on Intel Macs the audio for recognition goes to Apple's servers, so the internet is needed. Potok is an app for Windows, macOS and Linux, and it works on Intel Macs.
Turn on Dictation: the Apple menu → System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation. Then put the cursor in a text field, start dictation (the microphone key, if there is one in the row of function keys, the dictation keyboard shortcut, or Edit → Start Dictation) and start speaking.
You do not need to turn anything on: according to Apple's help, you can dictate text of any length with no time limit. Dictation stops by itself only if no speech is heard for 30 seconds.
It depends on the Mac: on a Mac with Apple Silicon, ordinary text dictation (messages, notes, but not the search field) is processed on the device and is not sent to Siri servers. You can see this in System Settings → Keyboard under the Dictation item. Whether Apple stores recordings of your dictations is decided by the “Improve Siri & Dictation” switch in Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.
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 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 |
| 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 |
Primary sources: support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com · www.apple.com · support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com