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OpenWhispr captures your voice through a global hotkey and pastes the transcribed text at your cursor. It works in any app — email, chat, code editors, documents.

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How it works

  1. Press your hotkey (default: backtick `)
  2. Speak naturally — the panel shows a recording animation
  3. Press the hotkey again to stop
  4. Text is transcribed and automatically pasted at your cursor

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Hotkey options

Change your hotkey in Settings > Hotkey. You can use any single key or compound combinations like Ctrl+Shift+K.
PlatformDefaultNotes
macOSGlobe/Fn key or backtickGlobe key requires Xcode Command Line Tools
WindowsBacktickSupports push-to-talk (hold to record, release to stop)
LinuxBacktickGNOME/Hyprland Wayland uses native shortcuts

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Activation modes

  • Tap-to-talk — press once to start, press again to stop (default on all platforms)
  • Push-to-talk — hold to record, release to stop (Windows only, requires native binary)

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Auto-paste

After transcription, text is automatically pasted at your cursor location. This requires:
  • macOS — Accessibility permission (System Settings > Privacy > Accessibility)
  • Windows — works out of the box
  • Linux — native paste binary included; falls back to xdotool, wtype, or ydotool
You can disable auto-paste in settings if you prefer to paste manually with Ctrl+V.

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Auto-pause media

OpenWhispr automatically pauses media playback (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.) during dictation and resumes when you’re done. Toggle this in Settings > General.