How do I use Smart Formatting & Backtrack
Last updated: November 10, 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 punctuation and capitalization; it does not correct misheard words. Changes apply from your next dictation, with no restart needed.
Mac and Windows
Auto Cleanup applies to all your dictations; Settings → System points to this tab instead of offering a Smart Formatting switch.
Open Flow.
Go to Personalization → Style.
Choose a level on the Auto Cleanup tab (labelled beta).
Level | Default | What it does |
None | No | Turns AI formatting off and pastes exactly what you said, including mistakes. |
Light | Yes | Cleans up filler words and grammar. |
Medium | No | Edits for clarity and conciseness. |
Light and Medium keep formatting on; a previous High selection appears as Medium.
With formatting on, your transcription format still applies: Apply AI formatting, Casual messaging, or All lowercase. Dictionary replacements and surrounding-text adjustments can still change lowercase output.
iOS
The Smart Formatting toggle updates your account's cleanup level and syncs with your Wispr account.
Open the Flow app.
Go to Settings → Personalization.
Toggle Smart Formatting on or off.
Android
Formatting is always applied; there is no toggle.
Format while you dictate
Lists
Use numbers or sequence words ("one… two…" or "first… second…") to create a list automatically. Flow removes spoken list indicators from the items and separates the list from surrounding text.
On Mac, Windows and iOS, lists keep their rich formatting. On Android, lists arrive as plain text: bulleted items start with "- " and numbered items with "1.", "2.", each on its own line, with the list starting on a new line even when it follows other text.
Punctuation and line breaks
Flow handles most punctuation automatically and inserts paragraph breaks at topic shifts, splitting long dictations into shorter paragraphs. Say a mark by name for exact control; spoken punctuation takes precedence over automatic punctuation.
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. Clearly discussing a mark ("remove the comma") leaves it as words; ambiguous uses favor symbols.
Tip: Line break and paragraph commands work best at natural pauses or between sentences, and they work regardless of your Smart Formatting setting.
Backtrack
Backtrack removes 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.
Flow removes the whole abandoned attempt, not just the last word, and does not keep it in parentheses. A clear cancellation can remove a thought without a replacement.
Only clear self-corrections are removed: phrases like "I actually enjoyed the movie" are preserved when the context does not suggest a correction, and ambiguous corrections or cut-off phrases without a restart or replacement stay.
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 ?. In the dictated text, abbreviations, decimals, URLs and version numbers can push text over the sentence limit, and ! and ? also count as sentences.
Note: On iOS, messaging apps remove all trailing periods regardless of Writing Style or sentence count, provided no text is selected and no period already appears on the current line.
Which Writing Style applies on desktop
Style cards appear after Writing Styles setup on Personalization → Style; before setup, no style is set, and the Personal messages, Work messages, Email and Other tabs default to Formal.
Personal messages offers Formal, Casual and Very casual; Work messages, Email and Other offer Formal, Casual and Excited. A previous Gen Z selection uses Very Casual rules.
Flow uses the destination app's category: Slack and Teams use Work, and email apps get your chosen Email style. Browser, chatbot and developer contexts use none of these styles.
Undo an unwanted edit on desktop
Your original dictation is kept. Undo AI edit works only for completed transcripts whose original and formatted text differ. Wait for the row to finish loading: clicking Undo AI edit while it loads has no effect, even if the item is enabled.
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 then shows and copies the original transcript without transcribing again. Choose Redo AI edit from the same menu to restore the edited version.
Note: On Instruct-mode rows with the sparkle badge, undoing the AI edit does not change what the row shows or copies.
For a new transcription, choose Retry transcript from that menu after dictation and row loading finish. Audio actions are offered for the first 14 days, but retry still requires saved audio on your device; if audio is unavailable, or your organization's policy prevents audio storage, there is nothing to retry.
On desktop, command mode, No AI formatting, and dictation into AI apps or coding-agent terminals use unformatted text. If formatting fails, Flow pastes the unformatted transcript instead.
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.