Talk, and watch it type.
Meta AI’s dictation does not just fill the chat box - with one permission granted, what you say lands in whichever Mac app has focus. Mail, Notes, a form in your browser. It is the least showy feature in the app and the one most people are still using a month later.
Independent guide - not affiliated with Meta. This is Meta AI’s own dictation, separate from Apple’s - see what it is and is not.
What it is, and what it is not
Three different things on a Mac can turn speech into text, and people mix them up constantly. Here is where this one sits.
It types into any app
Not just the chat box. With Accessibility granted, the words go wherever your cursor is - the whole point of it being a native app.
Transcription happens at Meta
Audio goes to Meta’s servers - Muse Voice Transcribe does the work - so it needs a connection and there is no offline mode.
It is not Apple Dictation
Separate feature, separate settings, separate shortcut. Both can be enabled at once, which is worth knowing if two things respond when you speak.
It transcribes, it does not obey
Saying “send this email” types those words; it does not send anything. Acting on your Mac is Muse, a separate app.
Turning dictation on, once
Steps three to five happen the first time only. After that it is: click into the thing you are writing, start dictation, talk.
Open Meta AI
⌥Space for Quick Invoke, or from the Dock. Shortcuts.
Click the microphone
It sits in the composer next to the attach button. The waveform tells you it is hearing you.
Allow the microphone
macOS asks once. If you dismissed it, enable Meta AI under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
Allow Accessibility too
This is the one that lets text land in other apps. Without it, dictation only fills the Meta AI box. Why they are separate.
Quit and reopen
⌘Q, then launch again. macOS hands permissions out at launch, so a running app ignores what you just granted.
Click where the words should go
Put the cursor in the email, document or field first. Dictation follows focus, not the app you started in. How focus works.
Speak normally
Ordinary pace, ordinary voice. Rushing and over-enunciating both make transcription worse, not better.
Stop, then tidy
End dictation and fix the result - or paste it into Meta AI and ask it to tidy the wording. Dictating well.
The text goes wherever focus is
Dictation has no idea which app you meant. It types into whatever holds the keyboard cursor at that moment, exactly as if you were typing. Click into a Mail draft and the words go there; click into a browser field mid-sentence and the rest of the sentence follows you.
Click first, then speak. Almost every “my dictation went somewhere weird” story is a cursor that was not where its owner assumed.
The corollary is useful: you can dictate into apps that have no dictation of their own, and into fields that would normally need you to type. It also means you should be a little careful - start dictating with a chat window focused and your half-formed thought is now in a chat window.
If nothing lands anywhere, that is Accessibility rather than the microphone: the app can hear you but not type for you. The fix is in the permissions section, and the symptoms are worth learning apart because they look identical from the outside.
Why dictation needs two permissions
One lets it hear you. The other lets it type for you. Granting the first without the second produces the most confusing failure in the app: a waveform that moves and a document that stays empty.
| Permission | What it does | Where to grant it | Without it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microphone | Lets Meta AI capture audio while dictation is running. | System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone | No waveform, silence transcribed. |
| Accessibility | Lets it insert the transcribed text into other apps. | System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility | It hears you, but only the chat box fills. |
Both need the app quit with ⌘Q and reopened before they take effect. What each one exposes is in permissions and privacy; if you would rather grant neither, typing into the chat box still works normally.
Eight habits that make dictation usable
The biggest shift is mental: stop trying to speak finished prose. Dictate roughly, then edit - it is still three times faster than typing.
| Situation | Do this | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Punctuation | Say “comma”, “full stop”, “new paragraph” | Spoken punctuation is recognised; relying on pauses alone gives you one long sentence. |
| Thinking aloud | Let it run, then tidy | Editing a messy transcript is faster than restarting three times chasing a perfect take. |
| Names and jargon | Say them clearly, fix them once at the end | Unusual words are where transcription slips. A single find-and-replace beats repeating yourself. |
| Noisy rooms | Use the laptop mic close, or a headset | Distance costs more accuracy than background noise does, and a headset solves both. |
| Long documents | Dictate in paragraph-sized runs | Shorter runs are easier to review, and a stumble costs you a paragraph rather than a page. |
| Tidying afterwards | “Tidy this into bullet points, keep my wording.” | Hand the transcript to Meta AI rather than reformatting by hand. More prompts. |
| Another language | Set the dictation language first | It follows your system language and does not switch mid-sentence on its own. |
| Anything sensitive | Type it instead | Audio goes to Meta’s servers to be transcribed - see permissions and privacy. |
Three failures, in the order to check them
No waveform at all
Microphone permission, or the wrong input device selected in Sound settings. Check the permission first, the device second.
Full fixIt hears me, nothing is typed
Accessibility, almost certainly - and it needs the app quit and reopened after you grant it. Why the two differ.
Full fixTwo things respond at once
Apple Dictation and Meta AI can both be listening. Turn one off, or give them different shortcuts.
TroubleshootingStill stuck after all three? The wider checklist is on Meta AI not working, and the dictation-specific walkthrough is here.
Dictation questions
How do I use Meta AI dictation on a Mac?
Open the app, click the microphone in the composer, approve the microphone prompt and speak. To have the words land in another app, grant Accessibility too, quit and reopen, then click into that app before you start. Full steps.
Can it type into any Mac app?
Yes, with Accessibility granted - Mail, Notes, a browser field, most anything that takes a keyboard. The text goes to whichever app has focus at that moment. How focus works.
It records but nothing appears. Why?
That is Accessibility, not the microphone - the app can hear you but has no permission to type for you. Grant it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, then quit with ⌘Q and reopen. More.
Is this the same as Apple Dictation?
No. Different feature, different settings, different shortcut, and Meta’s transcribes on its servers rather than on the Mac. Both can be active at once, which is worth checking if two things react when you talk.
Does dictation work offline?
No. Audio is transcribed by Muse Voice Transcribe on Meta’s servers, so no connection means no text. Apple’s own dictation is the offline option.
Can I dictate in another language?
Yes - set the dictation language in settings first. It follows your system language by default and will not switch automatically part-way through a sentence, so bilingual dictation means changing the setting.
Can I say commands, like “send this email”?
No. Those words get typed like any others. Meta AI transcribes; it does not act on your Mac. Carrying out tasks is Muse, a separate app. The difference.
Does it count against my free limits?
Not in any way you will notice. Transcription is cheap; what meters on the free tier is image and video generation. Pricing and limits.
Is dictation available in the browser version?
Only into the page itself. Dictation that types into other Mac apps is one of the three things the native app adds. App vs browser.
Where does my audio go?
To Meta’s servers, for transcription. If that matters for a particular sentence, type it instead - and read permissions and privacy for what Meta says it does with the data.
Click into the draft, then start talking.
Two permissions, one restart, and the slowest part of writing an email stops being the typing.
Independent guide - not affiliated with Meta. Weighing up the permissions first? Permissions and privacy sets out what each one allows.