FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set up my action button?
We’ve got a whole guide to setting up the action button. By setting up the action button or back-tap shortcuts, you can access Flow without having to switch apps.
How do I use my bluetooth mic?
The iPhone built in mic delivers the best Flow experience—it’s the fastest, highest transcription quality option. If you’d like to have Flow auto-detect your paired microphone, you can turn off this setting. We will be building in a selector for specific microphones shortly.
Why doesn’t my Flow keyboard show up in certain apps?
If it’s your first time installing Flow, sometimes you have to restart the app for the Flow keyboard to be registered the first time.
Certain apps—such as financial, health, and corporate applications—block custom keyboard extensions.
Fear not, because you can still use Flow with the right action button setup! By enabling the “quick dictation to clipboard” action button (or double back-tap), you can dictate directly to your clipboard, and enter the text by hitting paste.
What’s a Flow Session?
Flow sessions are built so that you can do many dictations back to back in quick succession without having to go back and forth with the Flow app, which is required to start your mic. During a Flow session, the mic is on, but Flow is not processing any data. Flow only processes your audio data when you start and stop dictation from the keyboard, action button, or within the app.
Why do I have to turn on Flow so often?
Want to turn Flow on less frequently? You can keep Flow sessions active for longer even when idle. In Flow settings, Set “Disable Flow Session” to 1 hour or “never” to switch back and forth to the Flow app less frequently. Increasing this time window should not affect battery life or performance of your device.
Why does it say my mic is on?
When you’re dictating with Flow, we turn on a Flow session so that you can do many dictations back to back in quick succession without having to go back and forth with the Flow app, which is required to start your mic. During a Flow session, the mic is on, but Flow is not processing any data. Flow only processes your audio data when you start and stop dictation from the keyboard, action button, or within the app.
If you’d like to disable flow sessions, you can set “Disable Flow Session” to 5min to have Flow sessions disable automatically after being idle for 5 minutes, or to “immediately” to end them as soon as you are finished with a dictation.
Why does it take me to the Flow app?
To turn on the mic from the Flow keyboard, iOS requires us to bring you back to the Flow app. You only have to do this once at the beginning of dictating, after which Flow will stay active until you are idle for five minutes. If you’d like Flow to stay active longer, you can set “Disable Flow Session” to 1hr or “never” to switch back and forth to the Flow app less frequently.
How do I pay?
We’re excited to hear that :)
Right now, Flow for iPhone is free for all of our early users. In the future, Flow will support a free tier with a limited number of words per week.
You can manage your Flow subscription from the desktop app.
What are Flow notes?
Flow notes are a quick place for you to capture thoughts while you’re on the go or write down your best ideas. They sync with the desktop app, so you can retrieve them quickly when you’re back at your computer.
We highly recommend setting your action button to take a quick Flow note in the background. That way, the next time you have that brilliant shower thought, you can make sure you never lose it!
Why can’t I use Siri during my Flow session?
Unfortunately, this is a limitation of iOS that does not support Siri when your mic is connected to Flow. You can easily turn off a Flow session at any point from the live activity on the lock screen, from the dynamic island, or within the app.
Why doesn’t it capitalize my words?
Double-check in Settings to make sure you have the “Casual tone in messages” setting off. We built this for our Gen Z users who wanted to make everything sound casual in their messaging apps. Warning: this isn’t for everyone!
How do I get Flow to be less formal?
Turn on the “casual tone in messages” setting—Flow will use primarily lowercase words (except names) in messaging apps like iMessage, Messenger, and Instagram.
We’re working on having Flow use fewer commas in messaging apps as well.
How can I have it pause my music while I’m dictating?
We are actively working on an effective solution here.
Flow won’t take me back to certain apps. Why?
Not all apps allow us to reopen the app after you turn on Flow. In those cases, you can swipe back on the bottom of the screen to return to your previous app or press the return arrow in the top left. If you have a favorite app that we don’t currently support, please shoot us a note, and we’ll try our best to support it.