How to Dictate Into Any App on Android (Voice Typing With One Tap)

To dictate into any app on Android, install the TranscribeGo app, open Settings → Dictation in other apps and turn on the Accessibility service. From then on, a small green bubble appears every time you tap a text field in another app. Tap the bubble, speak, tap it again, and your words are typed straight into the field, punctuated and ready to send. It works in WhatsApp, Gmail, Notes, Slack, your browser or any other app where you can type, and you never have to switch keyboards.

Typing on a phone is slow. Speaking is roughly three times faster: a study by researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington found that speech input on a smartphone was about 3x faster than typing on the touch keyboard, with fewer errors. Most of us still type long messages with our thumbs anyway, because the built-in voice typing either means switching keyboards, losing punctuation or fixing every other word.

TranscribeGo dictation brings the same transcription engine you already use for voice notes and recordings to every text field on your phone. Here is how it works and how to set it up in under a minute.

What is TranscribeGo dictation?

Dictation is a feature of the TranscribeGo app for Android. Once it is on, a floating bubble shows up whenever you tap a text field in another app, right next to your keyboard. The bubble is the whole interface:

• Tap it to start recording, and tap it again to stop.
• Hold it to talk, and let go when you are done, like a walkie-talkie.
• Wait a moment, and the transcribed text is typed into the field you were using, exactly where your cursor was.

You keep your usual keyboard. The bubble sits on top of whatever app you are in, so you can mix typing and dictating in the same message: dictate the long part, then fix a name with your thumbs.

The bubble also tells you what it is doing at a glance. Green means it is ready, red means it is recording (a white ring around it fills up as you talk), and grey means your words are being transcribed. A single dictation can be up to 5 minutes long, which is plenty for an email, a long WhatsApp reply or a page of notes.

How to turn on dictation in other apps

You only do this once. The whole setup takes less than a minute.

Step 1: Install the TranscribeGo app and sign in

Download TranscribeGo from Google Play and sign in. If you already use TranscribeGo on the web, WhatsApp or Telegram, sign in with the same account: dictation uses the same transcription minutes as the rest of your account.

Step 2: Open Settings → Dictation in other apps

In the app, open Settings and scroll to the Dictation in other apps section. This is the control panel for the bubble: it shows whether each permission is on, and it is where you come back later to copy your last dictation or show the bubble again in apps where you hid it.

Step 3: Turn on the Accessibility service

Tap Accessibility service. TranscribeGo explains what the permission is used for; tap Agree and continue and Android opens its accessibility settings. Find TranscribeGo dictation and switch it on.

Step 4: Allow the microphone and notifications

Back in TranscribeGo, make sure Microphone shows Allowed and Notifications shows On. The microphone is needed to hear what you dictate. Notifications let TranscribeGo tell you when a dictation went to the clipboard instead of a field (more on that below).

Step 5: Tap any text field and start talking

Open WhatsApp, Gmail, Google Keep or any other app and tap a text field. The bubble appears next to it. Tap it, say your message, tap it again, and watch the text appear.

Tips to get the most out of dictation

Choose your transcription language (or let it detect it)

By default, TranscribeGo detects the language you speak automatically, across more than 90 languages. If you always dictate in the same language, you can fix it under Settings → Transcription language for even more reliable results, especially with short phrases.

Hide the bubble where you don't need it

If you never dictate in a particular app (a game, a calculator, your banking app), drag the bubble onto the X that appears at the bottom of the screen. You can hide it for one hour or always hide it in that app. Hidden apps are listed under Bubble hidden in in Settings, where you can bring the bubble back with one tap.

Nothing gets lost

Some fields don't accept text typed by another app. When that happens, TranscribeGo copies the dictation to your clipboard and lets you know, so you can paste it yourself. You can also copy your latest dictation at any time from Settings → Copy last dictation. And if a dictation couldn't be transcribed (for example, you lost your connection), it is kept for 24 hours so you can retry it from the notification or from Settings.

What can you use dictation for?

Anything you would otherwise type with your thumbs:

• Long chat replies. Answer that paragraph-long WhatsApp message in the time it takes to say it. If you are the one receiving long voice notes, TranscribeGo can also transcribe WhatsApp voice notes for you.
• Emails on the go. Dictate a full email in Gmail or Outlook while walking to your next meeting, then give it a quick read before sending.
• Notes and ideas. Capture a thought in Google Keep, Notion or Obsidian before it slips away. For longer recordings, a voice note transcription workflow works even better.
• Work tools. Write updates in Slack, Teams or your project tracker without stopping what you are doing.
• Accessibility. For anyone who finds small touch keyboards tiring or painful, dictation turns every text field into a voice field.

Frequently Asked Questions