The short answer: press ⌃+⌥+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows/Linux) from any application, speak as long as you need, press the hotkey again, and AICHE transcribes and inserts clean text at your cursor without switching windows.
Opening AICHE's window, clicking record, switching back to your work application, and manually pasting text takes 12-18 seconds per dictation and interrupts your mental flow.
How It Works
- Position your cursor in any text field (email, document, chat, or AI assistant).
- Press ⌃+⌥+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows/Linux) to start recording-you'll hear a brief sound and see a recording indicator.
- Speak your content naturally while continuing to look at your screen.
- Press the same hotkey again to stop recording. Recording is toggle, not push-to-talk, with no length cap.
- AICHE processes for 2-3 seconds, applies AI cleanup if enabled, and inserts the text at your cursor.
- Continue working immediately or press the hotkey again for another dictation.
Heads-up: on macOS, you must grant Accessibility permissions to AICHE in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Without this permission, the global hotkey won't function outside the AICHE window.
The pro-tip: the hotkey works even when AICHE is minimized or hidden. You never need to see the AICHE window - just press the hotkey, speak, and your text appears where you're working.
Why a Global Hotkey Matters
Without a global hotkey, voice dictation requires four steps: switch to the dictation app, click record, speak, then copy the text and switch back to your work. Each step takes 2-3 seconds and pulls your attention away from the task.
A global hotkey collapses this into one step. Press the key combination from wherever you are, speak, and text appears at your cursor. Your eyes never leave your work. Your hands never leave the keyboard position. The cognitive cost of dictating drops to near zero, which means you actually use it instead of defaulting back to typing.
How the Hotkey Works Across Applications
The hotkey registers at the operating system level, not inside AICHE's window. This means it intercepts the key combination regardless of which application is in focus.
Text editors and IDEs. VS Code, Sublime Text, JetBrains IDEs, Vim (in insert mode) - position your cursor where you want text, press the hotkey, speak. Text inserts at the cursor position.
Web browsers. Gmail compose, Slack web, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Docs - click into any text field first, then use the hotkey. AICHE detects the active text field and inserts there.
Terminal emulators. Works in Terminal, iTerm2, Windows Terminal, and Konsole. Useful for dictating commit messages, writing documentation inline, or composing long commands.
Desktop applications. Notes, TextEdit, Notion desktop - anywhere you can type with standard text-field behavior, the hotkey works.
Platform Setup
macOS
The default hotkey is ⌃+⌥+R (Control + Option + R). macOS requires an additional permission step: open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, and add AICHE to the allowed list. Without this, the hotkey only works inside AICHE's own window.
If ⌃+⌥+R conflicts with another application, you can change the hotkey in AICHE settings. Choose a combination that doesn't overlap with your IDE shortcuts.
Windows
The default hotkey is Ctrl+Alt+R. No additional permissions are needed - the hotkey registers automatically on launch. AICHE runs in the system tray and listens for the hotkey even when the main window is closed.
Linux
The default hotkey is Ctrl+Alt+R. On some desktop environments (particularly Wayland-based ones like GNOME 41+), you may need to run AICHE with appropriate permissions for global hotkey registration. X11-based environments work without additional setup.
The Recording Flow
When you press the hotkey, three things happen simultaneously: AICHE starts capturing audio from your default microphone, a floating status bar appears in the corner of your screen showing elapsed time, and a brief sound plays to confirm recording started.
While recording, speak at your natural pace. You don't need to speak slowly or over-enunciate - modern transcription AI is trained on natural speech patterns. There's no length cap: a 10-second thought and a 90-minute meeting use the same workflow. 15 minutes of audio comes back as clean text in roughly 3 seconds.
Press the hotkey again to stop recording. AICHE processes the audio in 2-3 seconds, applies AI cleanup, and inserts the text at your cursor. The floating status bar shows processing progress and word count on completion. Audio is streamed to Groq, processed in seconds, and discarded immediately after processing, within 1 second. Nothing is stored on our servers.
Tips for Effective Hotkey Use
Build muscle memory. Use the hotkey 10-15 times on your first day, even for short phrases you could type faster. By day three, pressing the hotkey becomes automatic - you stop thinking about the mechanics and focus entirely on what you want to say.
Keep your hands on the keyboard. The hotkey is designed so your fingers stay near home row. After pressing it, you can rest your hands while speaking. When text inserts, you're already in position to continue typing if needed.
Chain multiple dictations. For longer content, use the hotkey multiple times in sequence. Dictate one paragraph, review it, then press the hotkey again for the next. This produces better results than one long continuous recording.
What You Get
- Unlimited voice notes, no length cap. Capture a 10-second thought or a 90-minute meeting through the same hotkey.
- AI cleanup. Filler words removed, punctuation and paragraph breaks added.
- Auto-categorization. Notes group into topics like Work, Ideas, or Life automatically.
- Custom vocabulary. 50 entries per user for names, brands, and jargon you use often.
- 99 transcription languages. Same Whisper-powered engine on desktop and mobile. Speak in any of 99 supported voice-input languages; mobile UI is fully localized to 28 languages.
- Zero-retention audio. Audio is streamed to Groq, processed, and discarded immediately after processing, within 1 second. Cloud sync is opt-in and AES-256-GCM encrypted with an Argon2id-derived key. Modern TLS in transit.
- Privacy-first telemetry. Diagnostics are user-initiated only via a hidden Send Diagnostics action - your dictations, audio, and usage patterns stay on your device.
Personal is $4.99/mo monthly or $3.99/mo on annual. Pro is $9.99/mo monthly or $8.33/mo on annual. From $3.99/mo with a 7-day free trial, no credit card. See pricing.
Result: dictating a 100-word response takes 40 seconds of speaking plus 3 seconds of processing, compared to 4 minutes of typing, and you never lose focus on your current task.
Works With
The hotkey works system-wide. Some popular tools:
- Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT - dictate prompts to AI coding agents
- VS Code, Obsidian - dictate documentation and notes
- Slack, Discord - dictate messages with Auto-Enter
- Gmail, Notion - dictate emails and documents
- Terminal, iTerm2 - dictate commit messages and commands
Do this now: click into any text field, press your hotkey (⌃+⌥+R or Ctrl+Alt+R), dictate one sentence, and watch it appear automatically.