How do I use Smart Formatting & Backtrack

Last updated: September 11, 2026

Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

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

How to turn Smart Formatting on or off

Smart Formatting is on by default. Changes apply from your next dictation; no restart is needed.

Mac and Windows

Open Settings → System → Extras → Smart Formatting and toggle it on or off.

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.

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.

Tip: To undo Auto Cleanup on a single desktop transcript, open the Home tab, find the transcript, and choose Undo AI edit from the … menu on that row. Redo AI edit reverses it.

How to use Smart Formatting and Backtrack

Context-aware formatting

Mid-sentence, Flow lowercases the start of your dictation to match the surrounding text; at the start of a sentence it stays capitalized. Flow adds spaces before and after your dictation as needed.

In messaging apps, Flow removes trailing periods — but only when the current line has no existing period, exclamation mark, or question mark; no text is selected; and the length fits your Writing Style or the messaging-app cap. Exclamation marks and question marks are always kept.

Messages (macOS), WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Signal, Microsoft Teams, WeChat, Line, Lark, Google Chat, Beeper, and Texts are detected as native apps. Messenger, Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, and Reddit are detected in web browsers only.

  • Detected messaging apps: periods are removed for dictations up to two sentences, overriding every Writing Style, including Formal and when no style is set.

  • Outside messaging apps: Casual removes periods up to about ten sentences; Very Casual removes them with no practical length limit; Formal, Excited, or no style set always keeps them.

Multilingual formatting

Smart Formatting supports an expanded language set, including Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Cantonese, and Russian.

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 mark by name for exact control; these 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", "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.

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.

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

How do I stop Flow adding line breaks without losing punctuation?

Your own "new line" and "new paragraph" commands work regardless of your Smart Formatting setting.

How do I learn about Smart Formatting while using Flow?

On desktop, the first time Flow detects you have used a feature such as Lists, Emails, or Backtrack, it explains what happened; later uses show a smaller confirmation. Notifications are suppressed until onboarding is complete and can be muted in your notification settings.

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

Flow removes only clear self-corrections. Phrases like "I actually enjoyed the movie" are preserved when the context does not suggest a correction.

Does Smart Formatting fix small errors in what I say?

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

Limitations and notes

  • 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.

  • Improved punctuation detection for non-English scripts applies to the desktop app going forward; previously recorded edit history is unchanged.

  • Smart Formatting can be toggled on Mac, Windows, and iOS only.

Still stuck?

Reach out to support if:

  • Smart Formatting is not applying punctuation, lists, or capitalization after you have confirmed it is enabled in Settings.

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

  • A punctuation command listed above is not 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.