Changelog
What's new
All the latest updates and improvements to Dictation Daddy.
v0.8.0June 2026
- Set your own custom shortcuts, including mouse clicks; you are no longer limited to modifier keys, you can pick any key or combination of keys to start and stop dictation, and you can even use mouse buttons such as the middle or side buttons
- Store your recordings on your computer with a new Store Audio Locally toggle in Settings that saves each recording as an audio file you can play back or download later, and you can optionally attach your last five recordings to a bug report; both options are off by default
- A clearer first-run setup that walks you through your first dictation and shortcut test with live, step-by-step coaching, so the microphone is listening before you start talking and you know exactly which key to press
- Medical setup now shows a real clinical note; if you choose Medical notes during setup, the practice step formats your dictation into a patient note instead of an email
- Custom middle and side mouse-button shortcuts now work on macOS; they would start dictation but never stop it, and now press-and-hold and double-tap start and stop cleanly
- The drag-to-Applications arrow in the macOS installer now renders clearly on Sonoma and Sequoia, including Retina displays, so it is obvious how to install the app
v0.7.0June 2026
- The FORWARD and REWIND buttons on Philips SpeechMike and Nuance PowerMic devices now move your cursor between fields, so you can jump to the next or previous field without reaching for the keyboard
- Context-aware dictation reads the text around your cursor so new words flow naturally with what is already there, handling capitalization, spacing, and sentence continuation automatically, and this now works on Windows in addition to Mac
v0.6.15June 2026
- Mac dictation shortcut now works reliably; the default is now the Right Option key, existing Mac users are migrated automatically, and the on-screen key shows grey at rest and lights up only while held
- Windows update notification buttons now work; Install Now restarts into the new version, and Skip this version hides the prompt for that version only
v0.6.14June 2026
- Long dictations no longer fail with a session error; if your sign-in token expired during a long recording or after your computer slept, the app refreshes it and retries automatically
- Long audio files now transcribe fully; files over roughly 20 minutes used to time out or return a partial result, and are now split into chunks at natural pauses and transcribed completely
- Clearer dictation mode names: General dictation, Medical notes, Raw transcript, and Highest accuracy; the Ultra mode has been retired and its users moved to General dictation
- New onboarding steps let you test your keyboard shortcut and pick the right mode for what you dictate, with practice sentences shown in your selected language
- Mac keyboard shortcuts recover from startup glitches; if the shortcut listener fails to load at startup, the app retries when you press your shortcut
- Windows reinstall no longer restores an old version; uninstalling clears the updater cache so a fresh install is not overwritten by a stale pending update
- Bottom bar reappears correctly when shown from the tray menu after using Hide for 1 hour
- Older Philips SpeechMike models are now detected on Windows, so their buttons work as expected
v0.6.13May 2026
- New 'Dictating via Dictation Daddy' tooltip with a pulsing dot appears above the bottom bar while you record, so it is always clear when the app is actively listening; toggle it off in Settings under Controls
- Free trial limit increased from 20 to 30 transcriptions so you have more room to evaluate the app
- Windows paste now works in Citrix and Cerner; the Ctrl modifier was being stripped going through Citrix Receiver, so transcriptions came through as a single 'v' character instead of the text
- Mac auto-update is fixed after being silently broken since v0.6.4 due to a missing release asset; Mac users now receive updates automatically again and the stuck 'Download update' banner clears after a successful install
- Free trial usage no longer counts empty transcriptions; only transcripts with actual text count against your limit
v0.6.12May 2026
- Higher accuracy in Enhanced mode with fewer made-up words and ghost phrases; custom dictionary words no longer appear as a fake transcript on silent audio, the 'Subscribe to my channel' Whisper hallucination on quiet audio is filtered out, and streaming dictations no longer come back empty
- Plug-and-play support for more pro dictation devices, including Nuance PowerMic 3, Philips SpeechMike Premium, Premium Air, SpeechOne, and Ambient, plus Philips 3-pedal and 4-pedal foot pedals, and Browser/Gamepad mode for SpeechMike and PowerMic 4
- Calmer update reminders with one notification per version and a 'Don't show again' button that actually suppresses future popups; the sidebar 'Install Updates' banner still works
- Hands-free hotkey now stops recording correctly when you release after a long hold of a multi-key shortcut, and double-tapping a 4-key combo registers reliably
- Windows installer no longer freezes when Dictation Daddy is open; it closes the running app automatically before installing the new version
- System audio muting works again on Windows so Spotify, YouTube, and other audio sources go quiet during dictation
- Bottom bar can no longer disappear permanently; the app self-heals if something hides it, and there is a new 'Show bottom bar' tray menu option
- 'Install Now' button in update notifications now actually installs the update
- Dictation feels faster on Windows after fixing a slowdown that added around a second of delay before each paste on some setups
- Plan-picker screen no longer appears for premium users going through onboarding, for example after signing in on a new device
- Cancelling a streaming Enhanced recording midway no longer charges for the audio you cancelled
v0.6.9May 2026
- Fixed mouse cursor stutter on Windows by removing a 2-second background HID scan; external dictation devices are still detected the instant they are plugged in
- Cleaner punctuation around URL macros so links no longer 404 in Gmail and Outlook when a sentence ends right after the URL
- Better paste into legacy EHR systems - smart curly quotes and non-breaking hyphens are normalized to plain ASCII before pasting, fixing mojibake on Windows-1252 clipboards
- Sidebar 'New version available. Download update' banner now wraps cleanly inside its card instead of clipping outside the sidebar
v0.6.8May 2026
- External dictation device support for Philips SpeechMike and Nuance PowerMic 4, with auto-detect, auto mic switching, a dedicated setup flow, and double-tap hands-free on the record button
- Rich-text macros - paste a formatted block from Word into a vocabulary trigger and the bold, headings, and line breaks survive into Word, Outlook, Notion, and Apple Notes
- In-app bug reporting with Cmd + / shortcut, tray menu, and Help menu entries; sends recent logs and emails you an acknowledgment
- Custom Words list now caps by token count with a clear 'N / 200 tokens' counter, so a list of long medical phrases still fits within what the backend can use
- Default external-device shortcut updated to Cmd + Shift + Option + D on Mac and Ctrl + Shift + Alt + D on Windows to avoid clashes with Chrome, VS Code, and other apps
- Sidebar entry renamed to 'Vocabulary & Macros' to surface the macros feature, with a clearer 'PASTES AS' label between trigger and replacement
- Medical mode promoted to the second slot in the model selector for easier access
- Custom Words add and remove now confirms with a floating toast instead of a banner buried in the page
- Bottom-bar tooltip highlights the shortcut and click target inline, and macOS key names are shorter (Right Option instead of the wordier form)
- Try Your First Dictation onboarding step now fits without scrolling
- Fixed double-clicking the desktop icon (or following an auth deep link) not surfacing the app from the system tray on Windows and macOS
- Fixed PowerMic 4 connection flooding logs and not pairing reliably with retries on non-input USB interfaces
- Fixed SpeechMike auto-detect missing on cold start, on unplug-replug mid-session, and when Windows reports the audio device label slowly
v0.6.7April 2026
- Hands-free mode now works with external mics by double-tapping the mic button, and the shortcut is registered at the OS level so it does not trigger other app shortcuts
- Fixed Windows antivirus software flagging Dictation Daddy as suspicious by replacing PowerShell invocations with a native binary
- Fixed the bottom recording bar disappearing on Windows when the settings window was closed
- Fixed the bottom bar showing as a separate second entry in the Windows taskbar
- Fixed uninstall on Windows not removing the auto-start registry entry, which left the app running after restart
v0.6.4March 2026
- Gift A Friend - you can gift the product to a friend, with 3 gifts to share
- Bulk vocabulary import via CSV for keywords and text replacements
- More reliable auto-updates with a manual Download update button when auto-update fails
- Better network error messages when your internet drops mid-dictation
- Fixed a crash on Windows related to volume control
- Fixed a crash when closing the app during transcription or sync
v0.6.3March 2026
- Fixed onboarding screens getting cut off on smaller displays so the Continue button is always reachable
v0.6.2March 2026
- Fixed paste not inserting transcriptions into text fields after dictation
- Fixed in-app notification pop-ups getting stuck on screen after window resize
- Added Sign Out button in the sidebar to switch accounts without reinstalling
v0.6.1March 2026
- Team plans - share Dictation Daddy with your team, invite members via a link, and share a pooled usage quota
- Click to record - click the bottom bar to start recording instead of using the keyboard shortcut
- Right-click menu on the bottom bar to switch languages, hide the bar, open settings, or quit
- Smart paste - detects whether your cursor is in a text field before pasting, saves to clipboard if not
- Toast notifications now have a close button and wrap long messages cleanly
- Paid users no longer see the subscription step during onboarding
v0.5.3February 2026
- Team plan support - invite team members via email and manage your team from Settings
- Auto-detect language option
- Toast notifications when usage limits are reached
- Skip option during API key setup
- Sidebar shows your actual plan type
- Use your own OpenAI API key for transcription
v0.5.2January 2026
- OpenAI API key support as an alternative to Groq for transcription
- 50+ language support with the most common languages listed at the top
- Better error handling for invalid API keys with clear notifications
- Clearer accessibility permission dialog
- Streamlined onboarding for lifetime deal users
- Fixed toast showing wrong message when quickly re-triggering the shortcut key
- Improved uninstall cleanup on Mac
v0.5.1December 2025
- In-app toast notifications for errors and mic status that auto-dismiss after 3 seconds
- Microphone status awareness showing which device is active and handling disconnections
- File transcription now supports files up to 500MB, up from 50MB
- Fixed onboarding text showing generic placeholders instead of actual shortcut keys
v0.5.0November 2025
- Faster transcription - pre-warms connection and pre-fetches auth token for less delay
- Better accuracy - optimized audio recording and disabled browser noise suppression
- File transcription now supports larger files
- Fixed email signature not working on Windows in production builds
v0.4.2October 2025
- Faster first dictation - pre-warms connection to transcription server on startup
- Vocabulary keywords sync across devices via your account
- Email signature for dictated emails - toggle from Settings
- Dictionary section renamed to Vocabulary for clarity
v0.4.1September 2025
- Replacements feature in Vocabulary - automatically swap words in transcriptions
- Replacements sync across devices and are backed up to your account
v0.4.0August 2025
- Style options to customize how your dictation is formatted
- Referral system - invite friends and earn rewards
- Groq integration for faster transcription
- Improved transcript logging with clearer settings
v0.3.9July 2025
- Hinglish language support for bilingual dictation
- Automatic retry mechanism for improved transcription reliability
- Local audio backup and download capabilities
v0.3.8June 2025
- Instant Mode for raw transcription without AI processing and minimal latency
- Trailing space option to automatically add space after dictated text
- Enhanced custom instructions with improved input handling
- Better file transcription with clearer interface
- Window context awareness for smarter email dictation
v0.3.4May 2025
- Free trial with no credit card required
v0.3.3April 2025
- Decreased dictation latency
- Improved transcription accuracy by 10%
- Android app launch
v0.3.0March 2025
- Professional dictation device support (Philips SpeechMike, Olympus RecMic)
- Advanced shortcut configuration for complex key combinations
- Faster onboarding with clearer guidance
- More reliable shortcut detection with fewer false triggers
v0.2.5February 2025
- Refined UI with compact bottom bar
- Reduced transcription latency
v0.2.3January 2025
- Background music muting during dictation mode
- Fixed old clipboard data getting inserted
- Hands-free mode - double tap the hotkey to activate, single tap to release
- Robust key detection preventing accidental activation
v0.2.2December 2024
- Double tap mode
- Shortcut key no longer interferes with other keys