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Most rejected shortcuts fail for one of three reasons: no modifier key, a combination your operating system has already claimed, or another app got there first. OpenWhispr tells you which when it refuses. Set shortcuts under Settings → Hotkeys under App.

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The rules

The app summarises these in a Shortcut Guide next to the hotkey field:
  • Use at least one modifier — Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Cmd, or similar — or a key that types nothing on its own.
  • Three keys maximum. Four-key combinations are rejected.
  • A letter or digit on its own isn’t allowed. Keys that type nothing — F-keys, arrows, Space, Esc and their neighbours — are accepted alone, and so is the macOS Globe key.
  • Reserved system shortcuts are blocked. Each platform has its own list.
  • Some combinations may still conflict with whatever else you run — those can’t be predicted, only tried.

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The one principle worth knowing

Pick a combination that types nothing. A hotkey is held down while you talk, sometimes for a minute, in whatever app you’re already typing into. If it ever slips through — a moment before the app grabs it, a window that doesn’t give it up — a combination ending in a letter puts that letter in your document. A combination made only of modifier keys can’t. That single test explains why the defaults are what they are, and it’s a better guide than any list.

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What to use

In every case the default is the recommendation. If dictation is working, there’s no reason to change it — the reasons to change are a physical conflict with something you use constantly, a keyboard without the key, or wanting the same shortcut across two machines with different layouts.
Modifier-only combinations like Ctrl+Win are fully supported on Windows, and are what it ships with. On a Mac, use Right Option on its own or add a regular key; on Linux it depends on your desktop — hotkeys by platform has the map.

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What to avoid

  • Win+H on Windows — that’s Windows’ own voice typing shortcut. Binding it puts two dictation systems on one key.
  • Cmd+Space on macOS — Spotlight, and the default for several popular launchers besides.
  • Anything ending in a common letter with one modifier — Ctrl+S, Cmd+F and their neighbours mean something in nearly every app, and most are blocked outright.
  • Caps Lock. Some dictation tools use it; OpenWhispr doesn’t support it.
On Linux, three combinations shown in the app’s own Shortcut Guide — Super+S, Ctrl+Alt+D and Alt+Space — are on the reserved list and will be refused when you try to set them. Use the table above instead. We’re fixing the in-app list.

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What the errors mean

When a shortcut is rejected the app offers up to three alternatives inline. They’re a fixed per-platform list rather than a check of what’s free on your machine, so treat them as a starting point and not a guarantee.
If you want a single key with no modifier, the Globe/Fn key on a Mac is the one designed to work that way — and it’s already your default. A right-side key such as Right Option also works alone on macOS and Windows, and an F-key such as F8 works alone everywhere.

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If it registers but doesn’t do anything

That’s a different problem — the shortcut saved fine and something is intercepting it, or a permission is missing. See my hotkey doesn’t work.