Dictate anywhere

Lalela isn't only for meetings. Turn on system-wide dictation and you can talk to type in any app on your Mac — your email, a chat message, a document, a code comment — with the same on-device privacy Lalela gives your meetings.

Press your hotkey, a small Lalela bar appears, you speak, and the text is typed straight into wherever your cursor was. Your voice is transcribed on your own Mac and never leaves it — there's no cloud, no upload, nothing to opt out of.

Dictation is a Mac-only feature and is off until you turn it on — a hotkey that listens to your microphone should never switch itself on without you.

Turn it on

1. Open Settings → Recording → Dictate anywhere.
2. Tick Enable system-wide dictation.
3. Grant Accessibility permission (see below) so Lalela can type for you.
4. That's it — your hotkey now works in every app.

The default hotkey is ⌘⇧D (Command-Shift-D). To change it, click the hotkey button and press the keys you'd like instead.

How it works

1. In any app, press your hotkey. The Lalela dictation bar appears and starts listening — you'll see the level move and your words appear as you talk.
2. When you're done, press Return (or your hotkey again) to insert the text.
3. Changed your mind? Press Esc to cancel — nothing is inserted.

The transcription runs on the Apple Silicon GPU, so it's fast and completely offline.

The one permission you'll need

To type into other apps, macOS requires Lalela to have Accessibility permission. The first time you dictate, macOS will offer to open the right settings pane (and Settings → Recording → Dictate anywhere has a button for it too) — switch Lalela on under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, then return to Lalela. The status updates on its own.

Until that permission is granted, dictation still listens and transcribes — it just can't type into other apps yet, so it places your words on the clipboard and tells you, so you can paste them with ⌘V in the meantime.

Good to know

• It's fully private. The audio and the text stay on your Mac — there's no network step, ever.
• Not during a recording. Dictation and meeting recording both use your microphone, so dictation pauses while a meeting is recording. Stop the recording and your hotkey works again.
• Password fields are protected. macOS blocks any app — Lalela included — from typing into secure password fields. If one is focused, Lalela copies your dictated text to the clipboard instead and tells you, so you can paste it yourself if you meant to.
• Clipboard managers. Lalela briefly uses your clipboard to insert text and then restores what was there. If you run a clipboard-history app, it may keep a copy of the dictated snippet.

Next steps

• Automations — let Lalela act on meetings as they arrive.
• FAQ — privacy, supported tools, and where your data lives.