Skip to main content
OpenWhispr can start dictation two ways, and you choose which:
  • Tap — press the hotkey to start, press it again to stop. This is the default.
  • Hold — hold the hotkey down while you speak, release to stop.
The setting is under Settings → Hotkeys under App, labelled Activation Mode, directly beneath the dictation hotkey field.

​
Which one to pick

Tap suits longer dictation — a paragraph, an email — because you aren’t holding a key for a minute. It also survives you pausing to think. Hold suits short bursts, and it’s harder to leave running by accident. If you’ve ever walked away from a recording that was still going, hold fixes that permanently.

​
Where hold works

​
Linux setup

On Linux, hold needs permission to read keyboard input devices, which your user account doesn’t have by default. If it isn’t set up you’ll see Hold to Speak needs setup in settings, with the command to run:
Log out and back in afterwards — group membership isn’t picked up until you do. Until then the Hold option stays unavailable and dictation runs in tap mode.

​
When the choice isn’t offered

On Linux desktops where OpenWhispr hands shortcut registration to the desktop environment — GNOME, KDE, or Hyprland — the app doesn’t see the key being released, only that it was pressed. Where that applies and the input-device access above isn’t in place, the mode is fixed at tap. Everywhere else the control is always shown.