Why your dictation was cancelled: tap vs. hold and interrupted starts
Last updated: November 4, 2026
Available on: Mac and Windows
Flow seems to start, you speak, and no text appears — or a short message tells you not to tap. Hold the shortcut through your phrase to retry; recovery depends on whether audio was saved.
Try the dictation again
Cancellation stops listening and transcription and exits command, instruction and hands-free modes. You can start again immediately. If dictation paused an active meeting's microphone, Flow tries to restore it.
Note: The Flow bar can be hidden or snoozed, so it may not be visible at rest. Its live waveform indicates that recording has started.
Select the text box where you want to dictate.
Press and hold only your dictation shortcut — don't tap it.
Wait for the Flow bar's waveform to show recording has started, then speak.
Hold the shortcut throughout your phrase, and release it when you finish speaking.
Your text should appear at the cursor. If no text appears after release, use the matching recovery section below.
What each message means
These in-app messages appear beside the Flow bar, not as system notifications, and last 6 seconds. Below, {shortcut} represents your configured push-to-talk shortcut, or your platform's default if none is configured; Mac and Windows defaults differ.
Don't tap. Hold down {shortcut}.
The supporting line says “Hold down {shortcut} while speaking, release to see text,” and this reminder can play an alert sound. Releasing within 0.5 seconds cancels after another roughly 0.5 seconds unless you press again. Releasing later still cancels if the microphone hasn't started; once Flow is listening, releasing after 0.5 seconds stops and transcribes normally.
Dictation cancelled
The supporting line says “Another key was pressed while starting. Hold only {shortcut} to dictate.” This card has no buttons and plays no sound. Extra keys can cancel a held dictation only within its first second, when the combination includes all keys of a shortcut Flow recognizes but doesn't activate a Flow action. Ordinary typing that doesn't form such a combination doesn't cancel it, and this cancellation doesn't apply to hands-free dictation or keys pressed later.
Note: On Mac, built-in fn shortcuts — fn with the arrow keys, Home, End, Page Up or Page Down, fn + Backspace for forward delete, and fn + F1–F12 — still cancel a dictation in its first second, but show no message. Other combinations, such as fn with a letter key, still show the card.
Double-taps, triple-taps and Flow-bar clicks
A second shortcut press within the first 0.5 seconds starts hands-free mode; press again when finished to stop. A third quick press cancels silently.
Clicking the resting Flow bar starts hands-free dictation; clicking during a held dictation stops it. Clicking again within 0.5 seconds of a hands-free start cancels and can show the don't-tap reminder.
Why cancellation may show no message
Even with Suggestions on, the don't-tap reminder appears at most twice daily and stops once your lifetime dictated word count exceeds 50,000. “Dictation cancelled” appears at most once per 60 seconds. Cancellation still happens when a reminder is hidden.
Reminders are also withheld while the instruction chat panel is open, when Flow's notification area is unavailable, or while another message occupies it. Cancelling through the settings button also ends dictation without a cancellation card.
Other messages and recovery
Warning: Recovery requires saved audio. Flow normally saves cancelled recordings in History, except recordings shorter than 0.5 seconds and audio covered by an enterprise no-audio-storage policy. Those exceptions leave no audio to retry.
You cancelled with Escape or the Cancel button
Escape or the Flow bar's Cancel button shows “You can recover your cancelled transcript” with Undo and Open History for 8 seconds, at most three times total and once daily. Otherwise, the silent “Transcript cancelled” card offers Undo for 3 seconds. Undo transcribes saved audio again and pastes the result; Open History opens your dictation history.
Finish any active dictation if Flow says “Cannot retry while dictating.”
Select Undo, or Open History when offered.
No text box was focused
“Select a textbox first, then dictate” means Flow copied the transcript to your clipboard. The card previews the text and offers Copy; your copy-last-text shortcut also copies it.
Select a text box.
Paste the copied transcript to insert it.
If the transcript has no text, including only tabs or line breaks, Flow shows “Paste failed” and preserves your clipboard. It also preserves your clipboard whenever this card is suppressed, including the notification-area and instruction-chat conditions above.
A previous transcript is still processing
A new shortcut press cannot start recording while the previous transcript is stopping or processing; this block doesn't apply while the microphone is still starting.
“Flow was processing your last transcript” offers Cancel and names your cancellation shortcut, Esc by default. It lasts 6 seconds and isn't frequency-limited, but pressing again within 0.5 seconds of the previous action can produce no notice.
Wait for processing to finish, or select Cancel to cancel the previous transcript.
Start a new dictation using the hold-and-release steps.
Polish is running
Flow blocks new dictations while Polish runs. Its silent warning appears at most once, so later blocked attempts may show nothing. Wait for Polish to finish before retrying.
An internet-connection message appears
“Is your internet connected?” appears silently for 6 seconds with “Your audio will be saved for retry if the transcription fails.” The audio-storage restrictions above still apply.
This warning alone doesn't prevent startup; a connection problem can also end a dictation with the same message.
Flow captured no audio
“No audio received” offers Contact us for 6 seconds; its extended version adds Select microphone and lasts 60 seconds. “Is your microphone muted?” offers Select microphone and Troubleshoot. A closed laptop using its built-in microphone can show a separate notice instead of the don't-tap reminder.
Permission, sign-in or account-access prompts appear
Microphone-permission denial stops startup and opens system settings with permission guidance, not a transcription-error card. Other microphone failures, audio recovery and sign-in problems use their own prompts rather than a cancellation card.
IT-admin accounts are blocked from dictation unless explicitly granted access; a dialog explains the role-based restriction.
A long dictation reaches the session limit
Near 19 minutes, “You have <1 minute left before you reach the 20 minute limit!” plays a sound. At 20 minutes, Flow stops and transcribes the audio rather than discarding it.
“Transcription session ended.” / “Flow supports up to 20 minutes per session.” offers Recover text for 10 seconds. If a transcription-error card appears instead, use its retry or Open History action.
Turning the reminders off
Suggestions is on by default. Turning it off hides both start-cancellation reminders and other suggestions, but doesn't change cancellation behavior or hide session-limit, error, permission or billing notices.
Open Flow's Settings → System → Notifications.
Turn off Suggestions.
Still stuck?
Contact support if:
Dictations still end without text after you follow the hold-and-release steps.
You see a message that isn't covered here.
Include your platform, device, shortcut, exact notification, and the steps you tried.