How to dictate an email in Gmail on a Mac
Write a Gmail message by speaking it. Here is the whole setup, what happens to your words on the way in, and what to do if they don't appear.
The short answer
Click into your Gmail message, tap Right Option or press Option and Space, and say what you want to write. Press it again, and Rubil types your words into the message with the ums taken out and the punctuation added. It is free for 1,000 words a week.
What you need
- Rubil for Mac. It works in the apps you type in, your browser included.
- A free Rubil account. You sign in with Google.
- Two permissions, granted once during setup: the microphone, and Accessibility so Rubil can paste.
Prefer to stay in the browser? The Rubil extension for Chrome does the same job inside Gmail. One account covers both.
The steps
- Open Gmail and start a message.
Compose a new one or open a reply.
- Click in the message body.
Rubil types wherever your cursor is.
- Tap Right Option, or press Option and Space, and talk.
Say it the way it comes. Pause to think whenever you like.
- Press the same key again.
Your words appear in the message a moment later.
- Read it, then press Send yourself.
Rubil never sends anything for you.
A ten-second example: one spoken sentence, typed into an email.
What Rubil does to your words
Rubil takes out fillers and the words you started over, and adds punctuation. Every other word stays.
um hey dana the launch moves to thursday uh can you tell the team
Hey Dana, The launch moves to Thursday. Can you tell the team?
Want every word exactly as you said it? Turn on Keep my exact words in Settings.
If the words don't land
If Rubil can't paste, your text waits in Rubil and stays on your clipboard, so you can paste it yourself. If it keeps happening, Rubil has probably lost its Accessibility permission. Here is how to switch it back on.
Privacy
Rubil sends your audio to a speech service to turn it into text, then sends the text to be cleaned up. Your dictation history stays on your computer, encrypted, and is never sent to a server. The privacy page lists every service and what it receives.
Questions
Rubil removes fillers and words you started over, and adds punctuation. Every other word stays. Turn on Keep my exact words to get every word as Rubil heard it.
Rubil tells you before you start a new take. Your words come back as each day drops out of the rolling seven days, or you can switch to Pro.
You can start and stop a take either way. With the keyboard, tap Right Option or press Option and Space. With the mouse, click the Rubil pill, then click Stop. Two system permissions need a click during setup.
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