How do I use Smart Formatting & Backtrack

Last updated: November 4, 2026

Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Use Smart Formatting to create lists and add punctuation while dictating. Backtrack lets you correct yourself mid-sentence without stopping.

Choose your formatting setting

Smart Formatting is on by default and cleans up filler words, grammar, punctuation and capitalization; it does not correct misheard words. Changes apply from your next dictation, with no restart needed.

Mac and Windows

  1. Open Flow.

  2. Go to Personalization → Style.

  3. Adjust your formatting preferences there.

iOS

  1. Open the Flow app.

  2. Go to Settings → Personalization.

  3. Toggle Smart Formatting on or off.

The preference syncs with your Wispr account. The iOS Style screen lists Writing Styles per category (Personal, Work, Email, Other), and styles apply in English only.

Android

Formatting is always applied; there is no toggle.

Use Smart Formatting and Backtrack

Creating lists

Use numbers or sequence words ("one… two…" or "first… second…") to create a list automatically.

Inserting punctuation and line breaks

Flow handles most punctuation automatically. Say a mark by name for exact control; these variants are recognized:

To insert

Say

Period

"period" or "full stop"

Other sentence punctuation

"comma", "question mark", "exclamation point", "colon", or "semicolon"

Dash, em dash

"em-dash", "em dash", or "emdash"

New line

"new line", "next line", "line break", or "skip a line"

New paragraph

"new paragraph" or "start a new paragraph"

Note: Some names (like em dash) may not produce a symbol — Flow avoids inserting em dashes automatically.

Tip: Line break and paragraph commands work best at natural pauses or between sentences, and they work regardless of your Smart Formatting setting.

Using Backtrack

Backtrack removes filler words, false starts, and self-corrections. Say a trigger phrase like "actually," "scratch that," or "never mind," or restate what you meant; Flow uses your full dictation as context to decide what to change. Only clear self-corrections are removed — phrases like "I actually enjoyed the movie" are preserved when the context does not suggest a correction.

Backtrack with a trigger word

You say: Let's do coffee at 2 actually 3.

Flow writes: Let's do coffee at 3.

Trailing periods

On Mac, Windows and Android, your Writing Style decides whether a final period is removed — it takes precedence over the usual messaging-app behavior. Removal requires no selected text and no existing period, exclamation mark, or question mark on the current line.

Writing Style

When trailing periods are removed

Formal

Never — the period stays, including in Slack, Messages and other messaging apps.

Casual

Up to 10 sentences, in any app including messaging apps.

Very Casual

With no practical sentence limit, in any app.

Excited or no style set

Up to two sentences in messaging apps; periods stay elsewhere.

Removal takes every trailing dot, including an ellipsis, but keeps ! and ?. Abbreviations, decimals, URLs and version numbers can push text over the sentence limit; ! and ? also count as sentences.

Note: On iOS, the final period is removed in messaging apps whatever your Writing Style.

Which Writing Style applies

With category-based Writing Styles, Flow uses the app's category after you complete Writing Styles setup; before setup, no style is set. Personal, Work, Email and Other default to Formal, and a previously selected Gen Z style uses Very Casual rules.

Email apps get your chosen Email style and email formatting (greetings, sign-offs, line breaks). Slack and Teams use the Work category.

Undo an unwanted edit on desktop

Your original dictation is kept. Undo AI edit is available only for a completed transcript whose original and formatted text differ, and not while the row is loading.

  1. Open Flow's Home tab.

  2. Find the dictation in Recent Activity.

  3. Choose … → Undo AI edit on that row.

  4. Copy the restored transcript from the row.

  5. Paste it into your destination app.

The row now shows and copies the original transcript without transcribing again. Choose Redo AI edit from the same menu to restore the edited version, or Retry transcript after you finish dictating for a new transcription. If formatting fails, Flow pastes the unformatted transcript instead.

Important: Saved audio expires after 14 days. After that, playback and Extract audio are unavailable.

FAQs

Can I format multilingual dictation?

Yes. Smart Formatting supports an expanded language set, including Chinese, Cantonese and Russian. Simplified Chinese (简体中文) and Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) are separate options that cannot be selected together; Cantonese (粵語) is separate and can accompany either.

Still stuck?

Contact support if:

  • Formatting is enabled, but punctuation, lists or capitalization do not apply, or a listed punctuation command is not recognized.

  • Backtrack removes words you wanted to keep, or ignores clear corrections.

Include your platform, device, steps tried, and an example of what you said versus what Flow wrote.