Which programs voice input works with: a breakdown by category

Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.

Which programs voice input works with depends on how a particular program is built: some see only their own window, others see any field on the computer. Potok (potok.now) inserts text into email, messengers, documents and code editors the same way, because it is built into the system at the input level and is not tied to one app. Potok's free limit is 2500 words per week, and after that you need a paid plan.

About 900 characters per minute can be dictated by voice versus about 200 when typing, and this difference works the same in an email, in a chat and in a comment on a task, if the voice input program sees all these windows. Not every program can do this: this section goes through which apps voice input works with and what is worth checking in each category, from office programs to code editors.

Which programs voice input works with in practice

Email and office programs are usually supported best: there is a lot of long connected text there, and the system sees the cursor in the text field unambiguously. This is the category where the difference between voice and keyboard is most noticeable: an email of several paragraphs is dictated faster than it is typed.

Messengers work almost as well, but here it is worth checking the desktop app and the browser version separately: sometimes voice input sees one and not the other, because technically they are different windows from the system's point of view, even if they look the same.

Code editors and the terminal are a category where accuracy matters more than speed: the same mistake in a variable name or a function name, repeated by recognition several times, is more annoying than slow typing. A program with a personal dictionary is especially useful here, because it remembers such terms after the first correction.

Browsers and forms on websites are the most uneven category. Most ordinary text fields work as everywhere, but the operating system isolates some fields from outside programs, for example password fields and some bank forms, and insertion does not go there in any voice input program.

Games are a separate case: in ordinary windowed mode voice input works the same as in any other app, while in games with exclusive fullscreen mode a program cannot show the recording indicator and does not write there. A detailed look at what stands behind the phrase “works in any app” and how to check such promises in practice is in the material voice input in any app.

A separate category is remote desktops and virtual machines: voice input built into the system at the level of the physical computer does not always see fields inside a remote desktop window, because technically it is not a text field but a picture. What helps here is not dictation but the built-in tools of the remote desktop itself, if it has them.

All articles in this section (2): potok.now/s-kakimi-programmami-rabotaet-golosovoy-vvod

What to open first

• if you want to know whether voice input supports a specific office app, start with the question is there voice input in Word: it covers the common case with text autoformatting;
• if you doubt whether dictation extends to a specific app or a browser page, open the material does voice input work in any app: it covers typical exceptions such as protected fields and exclusive fullscreen games;
• if you need a general overview by apps and categories rather than one specific question, the section voice input in apps collects the materials on each of them separately;
• if you have not chosen a program yet and do not know where to start the comparison, look at the comparison of voice input programs and go from the platform and the way of paying.

Who this section is not for

This section goes through compatibility by program category and does not decide which program is better overall: there are comparisons for that. Potok is a cloud service: recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work at all without the internet, in whichever program the input field opens. Protected fields such as passwords and exclusive fullscreen games are exceptions for any voice input program, not a shortcoming of Potok specifically.

Potok also does not understand voice editing commands like “udali poslednee slovo” (delete the last word) in any of the listed categories: such an edit is still made by hand, or the whole phrase is dictated again.

Frequently asked questions

Related software: terms compared

Primary sources: speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · blog.speakflow.ru