The morning of follow-ups

Most email is not writing, it is answering. Yes, Thursday works. Here is the file. Can you send me the numbers before the call. Each one takes ten seconds to say and a minute to type, and there are thirty of them before lunch. That is where dictation stops being a novelty: say the reply, send, next.

DeftNib is a key, not an app you switch to. Hold it (fn by default), say the reply, let go. The text is inserted where the cursor is, punctuated, with the fillers out.

How it works in each app

The four below are the ones people ask about. They work the same way, because a message body is a text field and the key inserts into text fields.

Gmail

In the browser, click into the compose box or the reply box and dictate. The text lands where the cursor is; Gmail's own formatting is untouched.

Apple Mail

A native text field. Dictate the body, tab to the subject, dictate that too. The full pipeline runs: punctuation, spoken corrections, your dictionary.

Outlook

The new Outlook for Mac and the web version are both text fields to the app. Reply, dictate, send. Signatures are better saved as a snippet than dictated.

Slack

The message box is a text field. The reply lands punctuated while the typed one would still be mid-sentence, and Enter sends it as usual. Slack, Linear and Notion for product teams.

Say "laura dot gimenez at ondasur dot com" and the pipeline writes the address, not the words. The same for URLs: "deftnib dot com slash features" comes out as a link you can click. It is a rule, so it is the same every time, and it works in the To field as well as in the body.

  • What you said

    “mi mail es laura punto gimenez arroba ondasur punto com”

    What went in the field

    Mi mail es laura.gimenez@ondasur.com.

    A dictated address comes out as an address

Snippets for what you type every day

Your signature, your meeting link, the paragraph you paste at the bottom of every quote. Save it once as a snippet, say its name, and the whole block is inserted byte for byte, capitals and line breaks included. Snippets do not pass through the pipeline: what you saved is what gets inserted. Snippets, in the feature tour.

Corrections you say out loud

"Friday, sorry, Thursday" keeps Thursday. You do not stop, delete and retype; you correct the way you would on the phone, and the good version is what stays.

  • You said

    “The meeting is Friday sorry Thursday at three”

    It wrote

    The meeting is Thursday at three.

    You corrected yourself out loud and the good version is what stayed

Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 26 or later. Free up to 4,000 words a week, no account.

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Questions

Does it work in Gmail in the browser?

Yes. The compose box in Safari, Chrome, Arc or Firefox is a text field like any other. Hold the key, talk, let go, and the reply is inserted where the cursor is.

Can I dictate the recipient's address?

Yes. "laura dot gimenez at ondasur dot com" comes out as laura.gimenez@ondasur.com, in the To field or in the body. Addresses and URLs are written as addresses and URLs by a rule engine, not guessed.

Does the app read my inbox?

No. It reads which app is in front, whether the focused element is a text field, and up to three characters before the cursor to get spacing right. It never reads other windows and never takes screenshots.