Echo
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In this guide
The quick answer
Echo’s main speech model supports 25 languages on your Mac. Add the languages you use in Settings → Speech and choose Automatic. Detection happens per dictation; for a difficult or very short phrase, select the language explicitly.
Which languages does Echo support?
Echo’s main on-device speech model covers these 25 languages. They share the same model download, so switching between them does not mean installing 25 separate models.
- Bulgarian
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Maltese
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Slovak
- Slovenian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Ukrainian
Other available languages, including Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, use Apple’s speech models. Select the language explicitly in Echo and check its model status in Settings → Speech. Availability and model preparation depend on the language and your Mac’s configuration.
Set up automatic language selection
- Open Echo → Settings → Speech.
- Under Your languages, add the languages you regularly dictate in. Echo starts with your Mac’s preferred languages.
- Set Dictation language to Automatic.
- Dictate a full sentence in one of your languages, then a separate sentence in another. Check the language indicator and the resulting text.
For example, you might dictate a French email and then an English project note. Automatic selection works per dictation. Do not treat it as a promise to identify every language switch inside the same sentence.
Try two separate dictations
Peux-tu m’envoyer la version finale demain matin ?Please send the final version tomorrow morning.Use complete thoughts with enough context to identify the language, rather than a single name or a two-word fragment.
When choosing a language yourself helps
A short phrase, an international brand name, or words shared by several languages may be ambiguous. If automatic selection picks the wrong language, choose the intended one in Echo’s menu or Settings → Speech and repeat the phrase.
Keep Your languages focused on the languages you actually use. Test regional spellings and proper names that appear in your work. Add recurring terms to Settings → Dictionary so Echo has the spelling you intend; use a “Misheard as” entry for an exact recurring substitution.
A dictionary entry is useful context and a correction rule, not a guarantee that every accent or name will be recognised. Read the result, especially when a name has an accent or a word looks valid in more than one language.
Keep cleanup in the original language
Echo instructs its cleanup model to keep the language you spoke. A French dictation should remain French, even if the rest of your Mac is set to English. Cleanup is intended to remove friction from your own words; it is not a translation step.
The chosen cleanup model still matters. If one model changes the language or handles a particular language poorly, compare with Off mode to inspect recognition without model-based rewriting. Then try the available Apple or local model option with the same sentence.
For offline work, prepare every speech model you need before disconnecting. The 25-language main model and an additional Apple language model are different downloads. Follow the offline checklist, and review cleanup modes if you are choosing between local and cloud processing.