Use Flow with multiple languages

Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Dictate in 100+ languages, including regional variants such as British English, Canadian English, Swiss German, and Simplified or Traditional Chinese. Configure your active languages once in Settings, and Flow detects which one you're speaking at the start of each session.

Note: If Flow is transcribing in a different language than the one you're speaking, turn off Auto-detect and select only the language you're dictating in. For a full walkthrough, see Flow is transcribing in the wrong language.

When to use it

Use this feature when you want to:

Dictate in a language other than English
Switch between two or more languages across sessions
Use region-specific spelling (e.g., British English, Canadian English, or Swiss German)
Dictate in a code-switched language like Hinglish

How it works in Flow

Overview

Flow picks a language at the start of each dictation session and transcribes the whole segment in that language. Selecting only the languages you actually use narrows the set Flow chooses from, which improves accuracy; Auto-detect lets Flow choose from all supported languages instead.

Key behaviors

Detection happens per session: Flow picks a language at the start of each session, not per word. If you switch languages mid-sentence, Flow transcribes the entire segment in one language.
Changes apply instantly: Language updates take effect on your next dictation — no restart needed.
Selections sync across devices: Languages you configure on one device sync to your others. On iOS, existing local selections are never overwritten by a sync.
Code-switching has limits: Flow works best when you speak primarily in one language with occasional words from another, rather than alternating sentence by sentence. With Chinese and English together, Flow may transcribe English words in Chinese characters or vice versa.
French typographic spacing: When dictating in French, Flow inserts a narrow space before ; : ? ! and » and after «. Consecutive punctuation like ?? or !? gets one narrow space before the whole run, and any existing space before target punctuation becomes a narrow non-breaking space.
Language display: Most languages appear with their English name followed by the native name in parentheses (e.g., "Spanish (Español)"). Single-name languages such as English, Hinglish, Afrikaans, Nynorsk, Tagalog, Malagasy, and Hausa show only the English name.

Language variants and orthography

German – Swiss: Uses Swiss orthography, replacing ß with "ss" (e.g., "Straße" becomes "Strasse"). Selected automatically during onboarding for users in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
English – British: Uses UK spelling conventions (e.g., "colour", "centre"). Selected automatically during onboarding for users in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and (on desktop) Ireland and South Africa. On iOS, Canadian users also get British English.
English – Canadian: Uses Canadian spelling conventions. Desktop only, selected automatically during onboarding for users in Canada.
Hinglish: A code-switched blend of Hindi and English commonly spoken in India. Select it if you naturally mix both: Hindi speech is romanized into Hinglish and English speech is formatted as normal English.
Chinese – Simplified (简体中文): A separate option from Chinese – Traditional. On iOS, Flow pre-fills the variant from your iOS region (China or Singapore pre-fills Simplified; Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Macau pre-fills Traditional). On desktop, Malaysia is also treated as Chinese Simplified. For regions not listed, desktop defaults to Chinese – Traditional and iOS defaults to Chinese – Simplified.
Cantonese (粵語): A distinct language option, separate from Chinese – Simplified and Chinese – Traditional.

Best practices

Select only languages you actually use. Fewer languages means more accurate detection.
Avoid Auto-detect if you code-switch frequently. Manually selecting 2–3 languages gives better results than letting Flow choose from 100+.
Choose one variant per language. These pairs are mutually exclusive — selecting one deselects the other:
- Hindi ↔ Hinglish
- Chinese – Traditional ↔ Chinese – Simplified
- German ↔ German – Swiss
- On desktop: English – American ↔ English – British ↔ English – Canadian. On iOS and Android: English – American ↔ English – British.
Search the picker by either name. Searching "hindi" or "romanized" surfaces Hinglish. On desktop, English, Spanish, and Chinese Simplified appear at the top as common languages.

How to set your languages

Note: During onboarding, Flow pre-fills your languages from your system settings. On iOS, languages configured on another device are applied at sign-in when no local selection exists.

Mac and Windows

Click the Flow icon in your menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows), then click Settings.
Go to General → Languages.
Select the languages you speak most, or enable Auto-detect. At least one language or Auto-detect must be on.
Click Save and close. Changes take effect on your next dictation.

Tip: Auto-detect chooses from all 100+ supported languages. For best accuracy with 2–3 languages, select them manually.

Note: Auto-detect disables the search field and language grid; toggling it back off before closing the dialog restores your previous selections. With 2 or more languages selected, a language picker appears on the Flow Bar for switching without opening Settings.

iOS

Tap Settings.
Go to General → Set Language.
Use the search field at the top of the sheet to filter the list, if needed.
Select the languages you speak most, or choose Auto-detect.
Back out of the language screen to close the sheet. Changes take effect on your next dictation.

Note: Each tap saves immediately — there is no save step. Removing all languages enables Auto-detect. If you sign in on an older iOS version that doesn't recognize a synced language, Flow keeps your existing selection rather than clearing it.

Android

Tap Settings.
Tap Languages.
Tap a language in your list to deselect it, or tap Add more to search for and add languages.
Tap Save to confirm. Backing out without tapping Save discards your changes.

Important: Android does not offer Auto-detect. Select at least one specific language before Save becomes available.

Note: The Languages screen has two levels. In Edit Mode, back exits Edit Mode and keeps your in-progress draft. In View Mode, back exits the screen and discards unsaved changes — tap Save in View Mode to persist your selection.

Examples

Dictating in English with Auto-detect on

You say: "Send the quarterly report to the team by Friday"

Flow types: Send the quarterly report to the team by Friday

Auto-detect identifies English and transcribes normally.

Switching from English to German between sessions

Session 1 — You say: "Schedule a meeting for tomorrow morning"

Flow types: Schedule a meeting for tomorrow morning

Session 2 — You say: "Bitte den Termin auf nächste Woche verschieben"

Flow types: Bitte den Termin auf nächste Woche verschieben

With both English and German selected, Flow detects the language at the start of each session.

Using Swiss German orthography

You say: "Die Strasse ist gesperrt"

With German – Swiss selected, Flow types: Die Strasse ist gesperrt

With standard German selected, Flow types: Die Straße ist gesperrt

French typographic spacing applied automatically

You say: "Quoi? C'est vrai!"

Flow types: Quoi ? C'est vrai !

Common issues

Signing in on iOS used device default languages instead of my chosen languages

Flow previously skipped the language setup step after a desktop setup but still dictated using the device's default languages. Fixed in the latest version. Update Wispr Flow and sign in — your languages are applied automatically and appear in Settings → General → Set Language.

Pre-fill bugs fixed in recent updates

Several onboarding pre-fill issues were fixed in recent versions. Update Wispr Flow to get the corrected behavior:

Wrong Chinese variant pre-selected on iOS: Onboarding now reads your iOS region to pick Simplified or Traditional.
iOS onboarding language order changed each time: Languages now appear in the same order as your iOS Settings → Language & Region preferences.
Hawaiian or Cantonese not recognized on iOS: Less common languages now map correctly when pre-filling from iOS settings.

Note: After updating, re-run onboarding or confirm your selection in Settings → General → Set Language (iOS) or Settings → General → Languages (desktop).

Non-English dictation on iOS pasted raw code instead of text

This was caused by a formatting bug that pasted transcribed text as raw code in non-English languages such as Dutch. Fixed in the latest version — update Wispr Flow to resolve it.

The app crashed while browsing the language list

This was caused by duplicate entries in the language list. Fixed in the latest version — update Wispr Flow to resolve it.

FAQs

Flow is outputting the wrong language — how do I fix it?

Turn off Auto-detect and select only the language you're dictating in, swapping the selection manually when you switch. For platform-specific instructions, see Flow is transcribing in the wrong language.

Flow transcribes my English words in Chinese characters

Remove Chinese from your language list, or select only English. Chinese and English code-switching is one of the hardest combinations for Flow, so a single-language setup is the most reliable fix.

I speak Hinglish but Flow only transcribes in Hindi or English

Select Hinglish explicitly from the language list, rather than Hindi or English alone.

Do languages show country flags in the picker?

No. Country flag emojis were removed because languages don't map cleanly to countries.

I'm dictating in French and seeing extra spaces before punctuation — is that a bug?

No, it's intentional. Flow applies French typographic spacing, which is standard in French writing.

Why aren't product names like Scratchpad and Meeting Recorder translated?

Scratchpad, Meeting Recorder, and Transforms stay in English across all languages, so they're consistent and easy to reference in support documentation and community discussions.

Will signing in on iOS overwrite my existing language settings?

No. Synced languages are applied only when no local selection exists on the iOS device.

How do I quickly switch languages on desktop without opening Settings?

With 2 or more languages selected, click the language picker on the Flow Bar. To add or remove languages, go to Settings → General → Languages.

Limitations and notes

Rapid language switching within a single sentence is not supported. English paired with Spanish, French, or German performs better than English paired with Chinese or Japanese.
Non-English transcription is not yet as accurate as English.
French typographic spacing does not apply to colons in times (12:30), ratios (1:1), or URLs (https://), and is skipped in code editors and developer tools such as VS Code, Cursor, Xcode, Terminal, and IntelliJ.
Text Styles require English (American or British) as a selected language on iOS. Personalized styles apply only when dictating in English, on all platforms.
Broader UI localization has not yet rolled out — most of the Flow interface is in English regardless of your dictation language.
On iOS, language pre-fill from system settings happens on first launch only; returning to the language screen later does not re-detect.
English – Canadian is available on desktop only; on iOS, Canadian users receive British English during onboarding. On iOS, Ireland and South Africa users do not get British English pre-filled; on desktop they do.
On desktop, language switching from the Flow Bar right-click context menu is no longer available. Use the Flow Bar language picker (visible with 2+ languages selected) or Settings → General → Languages.

Still need help?

Reach out to support if:

Flow consistently outputs the wrong language even with only one language selected.
You see transcription in a language you never added to your settings.
Language settings don't save after restarting the app.

In the Flow desktop app, click the ? icon, then select Talk to support. Include your platform, your selected languages, and a brief example of what you said versus what Flow transcribed. Most language issues are resolved in one reply.