Everything SaySo does
Hold a key, talk, let go — SaySo types it for you, in almost any app. Here's every part of it, in plain words: what it does, and the few things it doesn't. Open any section.
One key does all the talking — your talk key. Out of the box it's Right ⌥ Option MAC or Caps Lock WINDOWS. Change it any time in Settings → Dictation → Talk key — almost any key works.
- Hold to talk — like a walkie-talkie. Hold the key, say your bit, let go. Your words appear where your cursor is. This is the everyday way.
- Hands-free — double-tap the key quickly and recording locks on (a 🔒 shows on the pill). Talk hands-free, then tap once to stop.
Wherever your cursor is blinking — email, chat, a doc, code — that's where your words appear. Nothing to copy or paste.
A completed dictation is normally saved to your History too — so if it lands in the wrong window, you can copy it back. And if typing ever fails, SaySo tells you and puts the text on your clipboard, so it's not lost.
Talk naturally — umms and all — and SaySo tidies it. You pick how in Settings → Dictation → Cleanup style. Five choices:
- Recognized code editors & terminals → As-spoken
- Recognized email apps → Formal
- Very short notes → Brush-up
- Everything else → Clean
It recognizes apps by name, so a familiar mail app or editor is spotted automatically. Something it doesn't recognize — say email open in a browser tab, or a less common editor — just gets Clean. Pin it with a per-app rule (section 04) if you want.
By default SaySo picks a style per app (that's Auto). Want a specific app pinned to one style forever? Set a rule in Settings → Per-app rules and it always wins.
It suggests apps you've already dictated into, so you don't have to type the name exactly.
When you're not talking, SaySo shrinks to a tiny pill at the edge of your screen and stays out of your way. It's click-through — your clicks pass right past it.
- Hover your mouse over the pill — the dotted grip ⠿ appears on its left.
- Click and hold the grip, then drag the pill anywhere.
- Let go to drop it. SaySo remembers the spot, even after a restart.
- A quiet bar — idle, not listening.
- A moving equalizer — listening; the bars follow how loud you are.
- A padlock 🔒 — hands-free is locked on; tap your key once to stop.
SaySo starts in English, which is the most accurate. Change it under Settings → Language.
- Auto — detects 10 languages on the fly (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Hindi, Russian, Japanese), even if you switch mid-sentence.
- A single language — most accurate for that one, and covers languages beyond the 10 too (Urdu, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Swedish and more).
- Roman — speak Hindi or Urdu and have it typed in regular English letters, the way people text it. (This one uses your Groq key.)
Open the SaySo window (the three-line button on the pill, or the menu-bar icon) and you land on History — your past dictations, so you can find and reuse them.
- Search anything you've dictated, and filter by style (All · Formal · Clean · Raw · Roman).
- Copy any entry — handy if it didn't paste in the moment.
- Show original / cleaned — flip between your exact words and the tidied version.
- Re-polish — re-run an older note as a Formal version (needs your Groq key; not available for Roman entries).
- Delete entries you don't want.
Names, brands or jargon SaySo keeps mishearing? Teach it once in Settings → Your words: add the correct spelling and, if it's often misheard, what it sounds like. From then on it nudges recognition toward them and swaps the misheard versions for the right spelling.
You can also do this on the spot from History with “Teach SaySo a word” — turn a specific mishearing into a permanent fix.
SaySo has no subscription because it runs on your own accounts. You set two keys once, in Settings → Your keys — SaySo tests each one before saving.
Your audio goes to your Deepgram account to become text. That text is sent to your Groq account only when it needs AI — Clean, Formal, re-polish, or Roman. With As-spoken or Brush-up, nothing ever goes to Groq. Either way, nothing goes to SaySo's servers — your history lives only on your computer, and your keys sit safely in its keychain.
Open Settings from the History screen. Sections are collapsed so you see them all at a glance. Here's every control.
Always at the top — tells you if you're on the latest version, with a button to check again or get the update.
Covered in sections 09, 06, 08 and 04 above — they each live in their own Settings section.
SaySo lives in your menu bar MAC / system tray WIN and keeps running there. Click its icon for:
- Open SaySo — the main window (history & settings).
- Preferences… — jump to settings.
- Polish — make it formal — a quick toggle that flips everything to the formal style (and back to Auto).
- Quit SaySo — fully close it.
- One purchase ($19.99, once) works on 2 devices.
- Moving to a new machine? Deactivate an old device in Settings to free a slot, then activate the new one.
- If a license is turned off (say, a refund), SaySo tells you and stays open — enter a valid key to keep going.
SaySo quietly checks for a new version and shows a banner when one's ready. You can also check any time at the top of Settings. Get the update opens the download page — you install it yourself, about a minute.
The first time you open SaySo it walks you through a short setup, one thing per screen, and remembers where you left off.
- Unlock — paste your SAYSO-… license key.
- Microphone — allow it. MAC
- Accessibility — allow SaySo to type for you. MAC
- Talk key — press the key you want to hold.
- Deepgram key — paste it (a free account comes with $200 of listening).
- Try your voice — a quick live test, so you feel it work. Skippable.
- Groq key — optional, unlocks full Clean & Formal. (Required only for Roman languages.)
- All set — start talking.
Just as useful to know — so there are no surprises.
- No monthly subscription. One purchase; your only running cost is your own usage — Deepgram (cheap, pay-as-you-speak) and Groq (free tier for most people).
- It doesn't send your voice or text to us. Everything goes through your own accounts.
- No cloud sync between devices. History lives on each machine on its own.
- No AI-model picker in the app — it uses good defaults so you don't fiddle.
- No separate beep/sound switch, and no type-vs-paste chooser — just Auto-paste on/off.
- It won't type into password fields on Mac — the system blocks that on purpose.