Troubleshooting the Flow Bar (Desktop) and Flow Bubble (Android)
Last updated: November 2, 2026
Available on: Mac and Windows use the Flow Bar; Android uses the Flow Bubble. iPhone dictation uses the Flow keyboard instead.
If the Flow Bar or Flow Bubble is missing, won't respond or shows an error, test in a normal text field in another app. If it works there, check the app-specific restrictions below; if it fails everywhere, start with your platform's recovery steps.
Restore the Flow Bar on Mac or Windows
After each change, check for the bar and dictate a short phrase. If the bar appears and text inserts, stop.
Check Flow's menu-bar icon (Mac) or system-tray icon (Windows), including hidden icons under ^ on Windows; its tooltip reads Wispr Flow.
Open Flow: Windows—single-click its tray icon (right-click opens its menu); Mac—click its menu-bar icon, then choose Open Wispr Flow. If nothing happens immediately after launch, wait 10 seconds and try again.
Enable Show Flow Bar at all times under Wispr Flow Settings → System → App settings.
Enable Flow on Mac under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and Microphone—both are required. A system update can change them, and the pane's location varies between macOS releases. Windows has no accessibility permission requirement.
Test in a normal window in another app or browser, outside full-screen mode.
Press your dictation shortcut on Windows if the bar remains missing; starting dictation can trigger recovery sooner.
Relaunch Flow if the bar is still missing across apps, then check Show Flow Bar at all times again.
Hidden or snoozed bar
An off Show Flow Bar at all times switch means permanent hiding or an active snooze; Hidden for one hour identifies a snooze. Enabling the switch clears both immediately.
Right-clicking the Flow Bar offers Hide for 1 hour. The notification's Undo ends only that snooze; permanent hiding requires the switch above. The notification appears at most twice per user and disappears after about six seconds—without it, use Settings to restore the bar.
An active Notetaker meeting can keep the bar visible despite hiding or snoozing.
Windows bar remains invisible
Flow attempts automatic recovery after an update relaunch, sleep, lock/wake or full-screen gaming, so the bar may blink or disappear and return; recovery that would interrupt dictation waits until it ends. Repeatedly unsuccessful recovery can pause for up to an hour between attempts, and pressing your dictation shortcut brings the next attempt forward.
A third-party window manager or security utility can interfere with overlays; change its relevant setting or contact your IT team.
Check whether the Android bubble should be visible
Focus a normal text field outside Flow with the on-screen keyboard open—even with an external keyboard. The bubble appears as the keyboard opens and hides as it starts closing.
Setup must be complete for the signed-in account, with setup screens closed; the bubble then becomes available immediately, without reopening Flow. Returning accounts with completed setup need not repeat it, and neither switching accounts, repair controls nor Turn Back On bypasses incomplete setup.
The bubble is intentionally hidden in certain banking, financial and payment apps, password fields (including custom fields marked as passwords), numeric fields and phone-number fields. Browser address bars, notification replies and some system text-entry dialogs can override the field exclusions—even password exclusions—but never the restricted-app exclusion.
Use Android Home recovery cards
All accounts need Display over other apps and Flow's enabled accessibility service; microphone access is required to dictate.
Warning: Do not disable Display over other apps to silence Android's overlay notification. This removes the bubble and stops dictation through it until permission is restored.
Note: Enable the main Use Wispr Flow accessibility service, not its separate shortcut. If setup shows Make sure this shortcut is turned off, disable the shortcut and enable the service.
Open Flow's Home screen.
Swipe horizontally through the top cards to find your recovery action, past any word-limit or personalization cards.
Take the matching action below, then return to a normal text box with the keyboard open and dictate. If the bubble appears and inserts text, stop.
Card | Action |
Enable Flow bubble on screen | Tap Go to Settings and allow Display over other apps; Flow comes back automatically. |
Flow can't insert text | Tap Go to Settings and enable Flow's accessibility service. |
Flow isn't responding | Tap Restart Flow. |
Wispr Flow stopped | Follow the matching button instructions below. |
We can't hear you | Tap Allow Microphone and grant microphone access. |
Keep Wispr Flow running | Tap Allow and complete the battery-optimization exemption. |
Flow Bubble Disabled | Tap Turn Back On. |
Bubble is snoozed | Tap End snooze now. |
Flow Bubble Disabled appears only when overlay, accessibility and microphone permissions are granted but the bubble is stopped; each missing permission gets its own card instead.
Microphone permission
Allow Microphone requests access in-app; if Android will no longer show its permission dialog, Flow opens its Android app settings instead—enable microphone access there. Granting access clears the card.
Tapping or holding the bubble without microphone access also requests permission, during setup too. If Android cannot show the dialog, Flow shows Oops, something isn't right with We can't hear you; tap Go to Settings to enable the microphone in Flow's Android settings. Tapping outside the sheet dismisses it without opening Settings.
If you chose Ask every time and granted access for one session only, dictation keeps working until that grant ends; after it lapses, grant access again from the bubble or the card above.
Accessibility restart or repair
Flow isn't responding means accessibility is still allowed but is not responding, so Restart Flow reconnects it rather than opening permission settings. The prompt can take 60 seconds after a stuck start, or about 15 seconds after an update, and disappears when Flow recovers.
Wait for reconnection or for an actionable repair control after 60 seconds. The retry icon restarts the connection; the warning triangle opens accessibility recovery, where you enable Flow's accessibility service. See Android accessibility recovery.
Repair bubbles appear only with a focused text field, hide when focus leaves and wait behind active dictation. They clear on recovery.
The Wispr Flow needs attention notification opens accessibility permission recovery; Flow isn't responding opens Home. With app notifications denied, Flow uses temporary on-screen messages instead, and blocking the Accessibility Status notification category can hide these alerts.
“Wispr Flow stopped” replaces the restart card
If this card appears while accessibility still shows On, Restart Flow cannot restore the connection. Follow the action shown:
Tap Fix in Settings, or Open autostart settings if shown.
Allow autostart first when requested on Xiaomi, Huawei or Transsion devices.
Open Android's Accessibility settings for Wispr Flow.
Turn Use Wispr Flow off, then back on.
If the card instead offers Update app, install that update to restart Flow. The matching notification can offer the same recovery.
If the Android bubble disappears again
Battery management can stop Flow. Background reliability requires unrestricted or not-optimized battery use on every device, including Google/Pixel; setup's Skip continues without granting this, and you can grant it later.
On Google/Pixel, use Settings → Apps → Wispr Flow → Battery → Unrestricted. On Xiaomi/Redmi/POCO, setup opens autostart first, then a separate Battery details screen after you return to Flow; select No restrictions there. Realme, Oppo, Vivo, Huawei, OnePlus and Transsion also use a two-screen battery flow—complete both screens. Other manufacturers also need the applicable autostart or Recent Apps locking steps in Android setup.
Flow attempts automatic recovery from unexpected stops. If Android blocks a background restart, it retries when you open Flow; some background recovery waits for the screen to be on, power saving to be off and the battery not to be low. Reopen Flow if it did not recover on its own, then repeat the text-box test above.
Signing out, switching the bubble off, or removing overlay permission stops the bubble intentionally, and automatic recovery does not undo those choices.
Snooze and shaking
Dragging a ready-to-dictate bubble to the bottom target snoozes it for 10 minutes. The target is unavailable during recording, processing, errors or accessibility repair, and typing does not end snooze.
Besides the Home card action, shake twice in quick succession, in any direction—a single jolt does not work—with a text field and keyboard open for the bubble to return, showing Wispr Flow is back! Shaking is ignored while locked, restricted banking apps show a notice without ending snooze, and shaking restores only a snoozed bubble, not one hidden for another reason.
Ending snooze returns the bubble to its default right-edge position, not its last dragged position.
Restarting Flow after it stops during snooze clears the snooze rather than resuming its countdown. Accessibility repair also cancels snooze; resolve the repair before snoozing again.
Small icon or dot instead of a full bubble
In Settings → Flow Bubble Size, Shrink the bubble when not in use is off by default; Shrink to a dot and Shrink the bubble in search fields apply only when that main switch is on. The ready-to-dictate bubble then shrinks after five seconds, or immediately in search fields with that option enabled; browser address bars do not count as search fields. Recording, processing, errors and repair restore full size.
Online, tapping a minimized bubble expands it and starts recording; holding expands it and starts hold-to-dictate; dragging moves it without expanding. See bubble size and shrinking controls.
For visibility, adjust Flow Bubble Size or Flow Bubble Opacity in Settings. Reset on the size screen restores size only, not shrinking preferences.
Recover from Android error states
Gray bubble: reconnect to the internet before dictating. Tapping or holding offline shows No internet. Try again later. without recording; a minimized bubble still expands, then shrinks again according to its shrinking settings.
Blocked taps: if Flow reports another app is covering it, pause screen dimmers or other overlays and try again.
Rapid presses: wait at least half a second between taps or long presses; faster repeats are ignored.
Session limit: if you see Session ended, 5-minute limit reached, start a new dictation; Flow warns one minute before that limit.
During recording, processing, errors or repair, general tap and hold gestures are blocked; dragging and available action buttons still work. Releasing a hold to stop dictation is still accepted, even offline.
Paste error
Insertion failed, but your text was copied to the clipboard. Tap Paste on the bubble to insert it, or paste it manually. Tapping the Wispr icon dismisses the error without clearing the clipboard or starting another dictation; the error also dismisses after inactivity.
Failed transcription
Failed attempts are saved in Home history. The bubble's Retry makes one fresh attempt with the captured audio; without audio, it only returns the bubble to normal. While that attempt runs, you can't start a new dictation—pressing the bubble shows Still retrying your last dictation. Try again in a moment. The Wispr icon starts a new dictation instead.
Warning: Delete sits beside Retry Transcript in More options. Deletion asks for confirmation, and deleted transcripts cannot be recovered.
Open Flow's Home screen.
Open the failed entry's More options (⋮) menu.
Choose Retry Transcript.
Retry Transcript is hidden until the attempt finishes, so the same recording can't be retried twice, and it appears only when recorded audio was saved; without audio, you can report or delete the entry. If Flow hears nothing in the recording, the entry is saved as an empty transcription; recordings that are too long to retry say so.
After recovery, test dictation in a text box. If Flow requires a newer version, update from Google Play before testing again.
Still stuck?
Contact support if the bar or bubble remains missing across apps, or dictation still fails after the matching recovery steps. Include your platform, device model, apps tested, steps tried and any error messages you saw. On desktop, choose Talk to support from Flow's menu-bar menu (Mac) or right-click tray menu (Windows).