How to set up your push-to-talk key
Which key should I use for dictation, and how do I change it?
Open WisprBee's Settings and choose your push-to-talk key: Fn/Globe, a Command, Option, Control or Shift key, or any of F13–F19. You hold it to talk and release to paste. Set a second, different key for Command mode, which replaces selected text with what you say. The best choice is whichever key your hand already rests near and no other app has claimed — Fn/Globe on a MacBook and right-Option on an external keyboard are the two that conflict least.
Step by step
- 01
Open Settings
Click the WisprBee icon in your menu bar and open Settings.
- 02
Choose your dictation key
Pick your push-to-talk key: Fn/Globe, a Command/Option/Control/Shift key, or F13–F19. This is the key you hold while speaking.
- 03
Choose a separate Command key
Assign a different key for Command mode, which rewrites selected text instead of inserting new text. Using the same key for both would make the two indistinguishable.
- 04
Test it in a real app
Click into any text field, hold your key, say a sentence, and release. The polished text should land at your cursor within about two and a half seconds.
Worth knowing
- If nothing pastes, the Accessibility permission is the usual cause — macOS requires it before any app can type into another app. Grant it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
- Modifier keys still do their normal job. WisprBee only listens while the key is held on its own.
Terms used here
- Push-to-talk — Push-to-talk is an input pattern where audio is captured only while a key is physically held down, and capture ends when it is released. Compared with a toggle, it removes the failure mode of a microphone left recording, and it makes the end of the utterance explicit rather than guessed from silence.
- Command mode — Command mode is editing existing text by voice: you select text, hold a dedicated key, and speak the version you want, and the spoken version replaces the selection. It differs from dictation in that the output overwrites a selection rather than being inserted at the cursor.
- Accessibility permission (macOS) — Accessibility permission is the macOS privacy control that allows an application to observe and control other applications — including inserting text into another app's fields. macOS requires it for any tool that types on your behalf outside its own window, which is why every system-wide text utility has to ask for it.