How to Dictate Emails in Outlook and Gmail

Email is one of the biggest time sinks at work. A frequently cited McKinsey study found that knowledge workers spend about 28% of their workweek reading and answering email. You can't avoid email, but you can stop typing every reply. Here's how to dictate emails in Outlook and Gmail.

Dictating in Outlook

Outlook's Dictate button (Microsoft 365). In the new Outlook for Windows, Outlook on the web and Outlook for Mac with a Microsoft 365 subscription, open a new message or a reply and click Dictate in the message toolbar. Speak your message, and say punctuation such as "comma" or "new line" if automatic punctuation is off.

Windows voice typing. In any Outlook version on Windows 10 or 11, click into the message body and press Win + H, then start speaking.

Mac dictation. On a Mac, enable dictation in System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation, click into the message and use the dictation shortcut shown there.

Dictating in Gmail

Gmail in the browser doesn't have its own dictation button, but you can use the dictation built into your computer:

• Windows: click into the Gmail compose window and press Win + H.
• Mac: click into the compose window and use your macOS dictation shortcut.
• Phone: in the Gmail app, tap the microphone on your keyboard.

The problem with built-in dictation for email

Built-in dictation turns speech into text, and that's it. For email, that leaves a few gaps:

• Spoken language isn't written language. "Uh, so, tell him the meeting moved – no, wait, Friday" doesn't make a good email.
• Names get mangled. Client names, product names and abbreviations are often spelled wrong.
• It works differently in every app, so you have to remember which shortcut works where.

Getting a ready-to-send email from a few sentences

VoiceTyp works in Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail and any other app with one hotkey – Ctrl + Option on Mac, Ctrl + Alt on Windows. On top of fast, punctuated dictation, it can apply an AI template before the text is typed. With an email template, you say:

"hi Anna thanks for the proposal it looks good we just need the delivery date moved to March can you confirm by Wednesday"

and VoiceTyp types:

Hi Anna,

Thanks for the proposal – it looks good. We just need the delivery date moved to March. Could you confirm by Wednesday?

Best regards

Self-corrections are handled too: "Thursday, no, Friday" becomes "Friday". Add the names you write to most often to your custom vocabulary, and they'll be spelled correctly every time.

5 tips for dictating emails

1. Say who it's for and what you need – the first sentence should carry the request.
2. Dictate the whole email, then edit. Fixing as you go slows you down.
3. Keep it short. Speaking makes it easy to ramble; aim for three to five sentences.
4. Use a template for important emails so greeting, structure and sign-off are always right.
5. Reply in the client's language. VoiceTyp understands more than 70 languages and can translate as you speak.

Answering ten emails a day by voice instead of typing can save you hours every week. Try it with VoiceTyp's free plan – 60 minutes of dictation every month.