Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
In Windows 10, voice input is turned on with the Win+H combination in a text field: Windows opens the dictation panel. The function works only over the internet, and Windows 10 dictation has no Russian; it appeared only in Windows 11. For dictation in Russian on Windows 10, a separate program such as Potok (potok.now) will do: it recognizes Russian speech and starts with a held key.
The voice input panel in Windows appears with the same key combination on any version of the system, but the set of languages differs between Windows 10 and Windows 11, and for dictation in Russian this difference is fundamental. Other ways to dictate text without a keyboard are collected in the article all ways of voice text input.
How to turn on voice input in Windows 10: step by step
You can turn on voice input in Windows 10 without installing programs: it is a built-in function.
- Place the cursor in the text field where the text should go: Win+H inserts the result only where the cursor blinks.
- Press the Win+H key combination: the Windows voice input panel opens.
- Start speaking: the recognized text will appear right in the field.
- Speak in one of the supported languages, for example English: according to Microsoft's help, Windows 10 dictation has no Russian, and voice commands there are only in English (US).
- The editing commands are English too: for example, “delete that” or “strike that” remove the last dictation result. Russian commands exist only in Windows 11 voice input.
Besides English (US), Microsoft's help names the languages in which you can dictate text, letters and numbers in Windows 10: Chinese, English of other countries, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Russian is not among them.
If voice input did not work
Microsoft's help names two conditions, and they are worth checking: the computer is connected to the internet (voice input recognizes speech in the Microsoft cloud) and a text field is selected before you press Win+H. If the panel opened and is listening but Russian speech is not recognized, the reason is not the settings: Windows 10 dictation has no Russian, while Windows 11 has it. Whether you can get this ability on Windows 10 is covered separately: can you install voice input from Windows 11 on Windows 10.
Who this way will not suit
Potok is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia; it does not work without the internet. It has no offline mode, no apps for Android and iPhone, no transcription of already recorded files and no translation between languages: it only dictates new text by voice. It has no voice commands for editing text: Potok places punctuation and capital letters itself and writes numbers as digits. The free limit of 2500 words per week is enough for short notes, while dictating all working day needs Pro with no limit. For companies that are forbidden to send data to an external cloud, only the business option with servers inside the company perimeter will do.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Microsoft's help for Windows 10 says directly that an internet connection is required for dictation: Win+H recognizes speech in the Microsoft cloud, and without a network voice input does not work.
Windows voice input does not turn itself on: the panel opens only with Win+H or the microphone button on the touch keyboard. It works through the cloud “Online speech recognition”; if you turn it off in Settings → Privacy & security → Speech, Windows will use only on-device recognition, and voice input will not work. In an organization, an administrator can turn off speech services with a group policy.
Voice Access is a system feature for controlling the computer and entering text by voice, but it officially does not support Russian (the list of supported languages is English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Italian). Potok is made specifically for Russian speech and works as a separate app on top of any program.
No: voice typing with extended language support (including Russian) is a built-in feature of Windows 11 specifically, and it cannot be moved or installed on Windows 10 separately. Windows 10 has an older version of dictation with fewer languages (without Russian).
Yes, they use different combinations: Win+H opens Windows voice typing, and Potok works with Ctrl+Space by default. For a single phrase it is more convenient to use just one of them.
No, Russian is not on the official list of languages supported by Windows 10's built-in dictation. On Windows 11, voice typing officially supports Russian.
Check it in one evening
Install Potok, dictate what you usually type and compare. 14 days of full access, no card needed. 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.microsoft.com · support.apple.com