How do I use Smart Formatting & Backtrack

Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Dictate numbered lists, insert exact punctuation, or fix mistakes mid-sentence. Smart Formatting structures your text automatically, and Backtrack lets you correct yourself without stopping.

How to enable Smart Formatting

Note: Smart Formatting is enabled by default on every platform. Only iOS has a toggle to turn it off or back on; Mac, Windows, and Android have no toggle.

Open the Flow app on iOS.
Go to Settings → Personalization.
Toggle Smart Formatting on or off. The preference syncs with your Wispr account.

iOS offers an on/off toggle only — finer level selection is not available. Tap Learn more next to the toggle for details.

Tip: On desktop, undo Smart Formatting on a single transcript: open the Home tab, find the transcript, and choose Undo AI edit from the … menu on that row. Toggle back with Redo AI edit.

How to use Smart Formatting and Backtrack

Context-aware formatting

With your cursor mid-sentence, Flow lowercases the start of your dictation so it flows with the surrounding text; at the start of a sentence, text stays capitalized. Flow also adds spaces before and after your dictation as needed.

In messaging apps, Flow removes trailing periods for a more casual feel. Supported native messaging apps: Messages (macOS), WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Signal, Microsoft Teams, WeChat, Line, Lark, Google Chat, Beeper, and Texts. Messenger, Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, and Reddit are detected in web browsers only.

Trailing-period removal applies when the current line has no existing period, exclamation mark, or question mark; no text is selected; and your Writing Style allows it. Only trailing periods are removed — exclamation marks and question marks are always kept.

Behavior by Writing Style:

No Writing Style set (default): trailing periods are removed for short dictations (up to two sentences) in detected messaging apps.
Casual: removal applies in any app, for shorter dictations.
Very Casual: removal applies in any app, with no length limit.
Formal: trailing periods are always kept, in all apps including messaging apps.

Removal is suppressed if your dictation exceeds the length allowed by your Writing Style.

Multilingual formatting

Smart Formatting supports an expanded set of languages, including Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Cantonese, and Russian, in addition to previously supported languages.

Creating lists

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

Inserting punctuation

Flow handles most punctuation automatically. Say a punctuation mark by name when you need exact control; common variants are recognized.

Period: "period" or "full stop"
Comma, question mark, exclamation point, colon, semicolon
Dash, em dash: "em-dash", "em dash", or "emdash"
Quotation mark: say "quotation mark" instead of "end quote" for best results
Apostrophe: "apostrophe" or "single quote"
Asterisk: "asterisk" or "star"
Ampersand: "ampersand"
Percent sign: "percent sign", "per cent", or "percentage symbol"
Ellipsis: "ellipsis"
Slash: "slash", "forward slash", "per", or "divided by"
Backslash: "backslash"
Underscore: "underscore"
Hashtag: "hashtag" or "hash"
Tilde: "tilde"
At symbol: "at", "at sign", or "at symbol"
Angle brackets: "angle bracket", "greater-than sign", or "less-than sign"
Parentheses: "open parenthesis", "close parenthesis", "open paren", "close paren", or "brackets"
Plus sign: "plus" or "plus sign"
Minus sign: "minus" or "negative"
Equals sign: "equals" or "equals sign"
Trademark: "trademark" or "tm"
Registered trademark: "registered trademark"
Copyright: "copyright" or "copyright symbol"
Degree symbol: "degree sign" or "degree symbol"
Degrees Celsius: "degrees celsius" or "degrees centigrade"
Degrees Fahrenheit: "degrees fahrenheit" or "degrees f"
New line: "new line", "next line", or "line break"
New paragraph: "new paragraph"

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

Tip: "Skip a line" and "start a new paragraph" also work for line breaks and paragraphs, and work best at natural pauses or between sentences.

Press Enter (desktop only)

Say "press enter" at the end of your dictation to press the Enter key after your text is pasted. The phrase is only detected at the end of a dictation — said mid-sentence, it stays in your text.

Both "Hello world press enter." and "Hello world. Press enter." produce Hello world. followed by Enter. If "press enter" is the entire utterance, no text is pasted but Enter is still pressed.

The first time Flow detects "press enter," it removes the phrase from your text but does not press Enter. An in-app prompt then asks if you'd like to enable the feature:

Great: enables Press Enter, and presses Enter for the dictation that triggered the prompt.
Disable: opts out, and pastes "press enter" back into your text.

Enabling Press Enter from Settings also dismisses this prompt.

Note: Press Enter works in regular dictation only and is suppressed in Command Mode.

File tagging in coding apps

File tagging works in Cursor and Windsurf (VS Code is not supported). Speak a file name in a supported app and Flow tags it in your dictation and shows a confirmation notification. Tagging is skipped inside a terminal, and you can turn it off in Settings → Vibe coding → File Tagging in Chat.

Using Backtrack

Backtrack removes filler words, false starts, and self-corrections. Use a trigger word like "actually" or "scratch that," or simply restate what you meant — Flow uses your full dictation as context to decide what to change.

Examples

Creating a numbered list

You say: My top goals this week are one finish the report two send the presentation.

Flow writes: My top goals this week are: 1. Finish the report 2. Send the presentation

Inserting punctuation by name

You say: I can't wait to see you exclamation point Let's meet at seven period.

Flow writes: I can't wait to see you! Let's meet at 7.

Adding a line break

You say: When is reading club new line should be tomorrow.

Flow writes: When is reading club? Should be tomorrow.

Backtrack with a trigger word

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

Flow writes: Let's do coffee at 3.

Backtrack by restating naturally

You say: I wanted to buy a record as a gift… as a present.

Flow writes: I wanted to buy a record as a present.

FAQs

What happens when Smart Formatting is off?

Flow pastes your raw transcription without automatic punctuation, capitalization, or list formatting.

How do I learn about Smart Formatting while using Flow?

On desktop, Flow shows a notification the first time it detects you've used a Smart Formatting feature such as Lists, Emails, File Tagging, Backtrack, or Punctuation. Notifications appear only after onboarding is complete, are limited to at most one every few days, and can be muted in your notification settings.

Will I get a punctuation notification when editing non-English text?

On desktop, Flow distinguishes punctuation edits from word edits across all scripts — accented Latin, Devanagari, Cyrillic, CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, and emoji. A punctuation notification triggers only when you change punctuation (for example, swapping a comma for a semicolon, or an Arabic ، for an ؛). Edits to non-English words do not trigger it.

What if I want to say "actually" without triggering Backtrack?

Flow uses your full dictation as context and removes only clear self-corrections. Phrases like "I actually enjoyed the movie" are preserved when the surrounding context doesn't suggest a correction.

Does Smart Formatting fix small errors in what I say?

Smart Formatting handles grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and filler-word cleanup. It does not correct misheard words.

Limitations and notes

Smart Formatting is enabled by default on all platforms. Mac, Windows, and Android have no toggle to disable it; iOS has an on/off toggle only.
"Press enter" is desktop-only and is suppressed in Command Mode.
Trailing-period removal depends on your Writing Style and dictation length.
Simplified Chinese (简体中文), Traditional Chinese (繁體中文), and Cantonese (粵語) are separate language options and cannot be selected at the same time.
Smart Formatting notifications are suppressed until onboarding is complete.
Improved punctuation detection for non-English scripts applies to the desktop app going forward; previously recorded edit history is unchanged.

Still stuck?

Reach out to support if:

Smart Formatting is not applying punctuation, lists, or capitalization after you've confirmed it's enabled.
Backtrack is removing words you wanted to keep, or ignoring clear corrections.
A punctuation command listed above isn't being recognized.

Include your platform, app version, and an example of what you said versus what Flow wrote. Most formatting issues are resolved in one reply.