How do I use Smart Formatting & Backtrack
Last updated: October 9, 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. Changes apply from your next dictation; no restart is needed.
Mac and Windows
Open Flow.
Go to Personalization → Style.
Adjust your formatting preferences there.
Formatting cleans up filler words, grammar, punctuation and capitalization. It does not correct misheard words.
iOS
Open the Flow app.
Go to Settings → Personalization.
Toggle Smart Formatting on or off.
The preference syncs with your Wispr account.
Note: 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.
On desktop, rich-text output uses one line break for a new line and two for a new paragraph, without extra spacing around lists; plain-text output removes empty lines.
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 desktop
On Mac and Windows, trailing-period removal depends on your Writing Style. It 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 through this rule, including in messaging apps. |
Casual | Up to 10 sentences, in any app. |
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. |
The rule removes 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.
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. 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 while still qualifying for the messaging rule.
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.
Open Flow's Home tab.
Find the dictation in Recent Activity.
Choose … → Undo AI edit on that row.
Copy the restored transcript from the row.
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. For a new transcription, use Retry transcript after you finish dictating.
Important: Saved audio expires after 14 days. After that, playback and Extract audio are unavailable.
If formatting fails, Flow pastes the unformatted transcript instead.
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.
Why don't I always see formatting notices?
After onboarding, desktop can show explanatory notices for Lists, Emails and Backtrack, followed by smaller reminders. Each feature gets at most one explanation and three reminders.
Mute these notices with Announcements ("New features or capabilities") under Settings → System → Notifications.
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.