I Mostly Stopped Typing
I built the dictation app I wanted. It's called TongueType, and my daughter did the voice over for the video. (Family business.)
It hasn't gotten much traction yet, and I think I know why. Dictation was bad for so long that most people stopped paying attention. I don't blame them. I wrote it off myself for years.
Alas, that reputation is out of date. The thing that was flaky and frustrating five years ago runs entirely on your Mac now, and it's good. Really good.
Downloads of the app are low so far, but the people who actually try it tend to stick around. So the problem isn't the app, it's getting anyone to give dictation one more chance.
The habit is the hurdle
The hard part isn't accuracy. It's that talking instead of typing is a new habit, and new habits are awkward before they're automatic. For the first week it feels strange. You catch yourself reaching for the keyboard out of muscle memory.
Then one day it clicks.
I still write code by hand. That's thinking, not transcribing, and I want my fingers on it (plus saying HTML tags and attributes out loud seems counterintuitive 😂). But for almost everything else, I talk.
- I prompt LLMs
- I send emails
- I reply on Slack
- I write commit messages
- I do most other text with my voice
Every one of those is the same task: the thinking is done, I just have to get the words out. That's a bigger chunk of my day than I expected.
My desk setup
On the go, the MacBook's built-in mic works just fine. You don't need fancy hardware for this. But when I'm at my desk, my laptop is docked, so I pair TongueType with a Tula mic. It's small, portable, sounds great, and looks the part! (Kuru Toga mechanical pencil positioned for size comparison.)
One tip: use a wired mic if you can. Bluetooth adds latency, and latency is the enemy of a tool you reach for dozens of times a day.
Honest caveat: dictation probably isn't great in a co-working space. 😂
"Why is this better than macOS dictation?"
TongueType is more accurate, it's more customizable, and it doesn't send my voice anywhere.
I could list the features, but my answer is the same one I'd give for most things: just try it. It's free to start.
What's your experience been with dictation? If you wrote it off years ago, I'd genuinely love for you to give TongueType a shot and tell me what you think.