Echo
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In this guide
The quick answer
For occasional voice typing, start with the Dictation built into macOS. For a hold-to-talk workflow with optional text cleanup, Echo inserts your words into the app you’re already using. Echo is free and requires macOS 26 and Apple silicon.
Choose how you want to dictate
Mac dictation turns live speech into written text. It is useful for a reply, a rough paragraph, or a note you would otherwise type. Start with one of those small tasks: a familiar sentence is easier to check than a whole page.
To try Apple’s built-in option, open System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation, enable it, and check its language and shortcut. Place your cursor in a document and use that shortcut to begin. Apple documents the controls in its Mac Dictation guide.
Echo is another option if you prefer to hold a key while speaking and release it when your thought is finished. It transcribes on your Mac, optionally tidies the text, and pastes into the focused field. The Echo and Apple Dictation comparison explains the difference in more detail.
Set up Echo for your first sentence
- Check your Mac. Echo needs macOS 26 and an Apple silicon Mac, such as an M1 or later. Leave about 1 GB free for the speech model and setup.
- Install the app. Download Echo, open the disk image, drag Echo to Applications, and open it. Look for Echo in the menu bar.
- Complete setup. Allow Microphone access so Echo can hear you, and Accessibility so it can watch your shortcut and paste. Let the speech model finish its one-time download, about 630 MB.
- Start simply. In Settings → Polish, choose Off for a first test. You can add a cleanup model after you know speech and pasting work.
- Try a local document. Open TextEdit, create a document, and click in its body. Hold fn, say one sentence, and release.
A first sentence to try
Please send me the revised proposal tomorrow morning.
Check the words, then try the same workflow in the app where you normally write.
Find a comfortable rhythm
Speak at your normal conversational pace. Give the microphone a clear beginning and end: start once Echo’s listening indicator appears, and finish your last word before letting go. A short paragraph per dictation keeps corrections manageable.
You can change the hold-to-talk key in Settings → General. If the globe key opens the emoji picker, set System Settings → Keyboard → Press 🌐 key to → Do Nothing, or choose another key in Echo. Press esc to cancel a dictation.
Once the basic flow feels right, choose Apple or AI in Settings → Polish. These modes can tidy the text beyond the basic filler removal in Off. The cleanup guide shows what each mode does and where the text is processed.
Review the details that matter
Read back names, dates, numbers, and words such as “not.” Speech recognition can confuse similar sounds, and a polished sentence can still contain the wrong fact. Use Echo’s Dictionary for recurring names or terms, and edit a mistake where it appears.
If you see no listening indicator, no transcript, or no pasted text, those are different problems. Follow the matching checks in the troubleshooting guide. Once your test sentence works, try a real task such as dictating a short email.