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OpenWhispr is meant to be forgotten about until you press the hotkey. It runs from the system tray, shows a small floating panel while you dictate, and stays out of the way otherwise. Everything on this page lives under Settings → Preferences under App.

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The tray icon

The tray icon — menu bar on macOS, system tray on Windows and Linux — is how you reach the app when no window is open. Click it to show or hide the control panel; right-click for the menu. Closing the control panel window doesn’t quit OpenWhispr. That’s deliberate: it has to keep running to hear your hotkey. Quit properly from the tray menu when you actually want it gone.
The Dock icon follows the control panel — it appears when the panel is open and disappears when you close it. Launching straight to the tray shows no Dock icon at all.

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The floating panel

The floating panel is the small window that shows you’re recording. You can drag the panel anywhere; the start position is where it comes back on launch. If it’s ever off-screen — usually after unplugging an external monitor — restart the app and it returns to the start position.

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Starting with your computer

On Linux, use your desktop environment’s own autostart to achieve the same thing.

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Sound and appearance

Dictation sounds are worth keeping on to begin with — they’re how you learn whether the hotkey registered without watching the screen.

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Notifications

Four separate switches, all on by default:
  • Meeting detection — tells you a meeting was detected so you can start recording
  • Calendar reminders — tells you a scheduled meeting is about to start
  • App updates — tells you a new version is available
  • Disable all notifications — silences everything except errors