The reply you keep putting off is faster to say than to type. With Clavio you just say it. Open a new message or a reply in Apple Mail, and while your cursor sits in the compose window, speak — the update, the answer, the note you've been meaning to send — and a clean, properly written email lands in the body: greeting, real punctuation, paragraph breaks, and none of the rambling that spoken words arrive with. A formal polish shapes what you said into the register email actually calls for, so it reads like something you wrote carefully rather than talked out loud. Nothing sends itself — Clavio writes the draft and stops, because an email is something you read over before it goes. Keep talking and it keeps up, so a long reply arrives whole. And the same voice writes your next message, your calendar invite, your Slack reply — email becomes something you say.
Tap one key and start talking
Apple Mail is a native app with no name to talk to, so you trigger Clavio with a single hotkey — or a wake word if you'd rather not touch the keyboard at all. Open a new message with ⌘N or hit Reply on a thread, put your cursor in the body, tap the key once, and start talking; there's no window to summon and nothing to hold down while you speak. The gap between deciding to answer and having a written answer closes to about a sentence. You dictate the message at the speed you'd have explained it, and it's already text in the compose window — not a voice memo, not a draft you'll have to type up later.
Formal tone, because it's going in an email
Email has a register that speech doesn't. When you talk you ramble, backtrack, and pad sentences with “um” and “you know” — fine out loud, wrong in a message a client or a colleague will read and judge. So keep Clavio on a formal polish for Apple Mail: it clears the filler and the false starts, adds the greeting, the punctuation, and the paragraph breaks you'd never say aloud, and shapes your speech into clean, professional sentences — without inventing points you didn't make or ironing out what you meant. You never say “comma” or “new paragraph”; the layout is inferred. Add the names you email often — clients, colleagues, companies, the product you always misspell — to Clavio's dictionary, and they come through spelled right instead of guessed at.
Auto-send stays off — you read it before it goes
This is the one setting email should never share with a chat app. A message you send to a client or your boss gets read once, by you, before it leaves — so for Apple Mail keep auto-send off. Clavio types the finished draft into the compose window and waits: you glance over it, fix the one word you'd put differently, add the attachment, and hit Send yourself. That pause is the point. You still dictate the whole thing hands-free — the subject line, the body, a long reply that runs several paragraphs — and Clavio keeps transcribing for as long as you keep talking, so nothing stops on you mid-sentence. What you get is a complete draft the moment you finish speaking, and the last, deliberate step stays yours.
One voice for the whole inbox — and everywhere else
An email is rarely the end of the thread. Fire off the reply in Apple Mail, then take the same voice everywhere the conversation continues: confirm the meeting in Calendar, jot the follow-up in Notes, ping a colleague in Slack, answer the quick one in Messages. Clavio remembers the tone per app — formal and polished for Mail, casual for a chat — so one trigger carries you from the inbox to the calendar to the chat without you changing a setting. And because it only answers to your voice, someone talking near your desk never adds a stray line to the email you're drafting. That's what dictating into Apple Mail actually feels like: you talk, and a send-ready message is waiting for you to read.
Recommended Clavio settings for Apple Mail
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Activation | Hotkey (or wake word) | Apple Mail has no name to talk to, so trigger with a single key — cursor already in the compose window — or a wake word to stay fully hands-free. |
| Polish level | Formal | Email is a professional register; formal clears filler and adds the greeting, punctuation, and paragraphs a message needs — without changing what you meant. |
| Auto-send | Off | An email is read once before it leaves. Clavio types the draft and waits, so you review it and hit Send yourself. |
| Personal dictionary | Add names you email | Keeps the clients, colleagues, and company names you write most coming through spelled right instead of guessed at. |
| Snippets | Save your sign-off | A short spoken trigger drops in your full closing or a scheduling line, so you dictate only the body and let the sign-off complete itself. |
Write email by voice with Clavio
Clavio is an AI dictation app for Mac. It sits in your menu bar and types finished text wherever your cursor is — the Apple Mail compose window, plus Messages, Calendar, Notes, Slack, and your docs. For Apple Mail you set a formal polish so a spoken update lands as a clean, professional email, and keep auto-send off so Clavio writes the draft and waits while you read it over and hit Send yourself. A personal dictionary keeps the names you email intact, snippets drop in your sign-off, and an on-device voiceprint means only your voice sets it off. Free to try: 3,000 words a month, no card, macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon. Pro is £12/month for unlimited.
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Common questions
Doesn't my Mac already dictate into Apple Mail?
Your Mac has a built-in dictation that works in Apple Mail, but two things get in the way of email. It types your words verbatim — filler, false starts, and no punctuation unless you speak “comma” and “new paragraph” aloud — so you rewrite it into something send-worthy afterward; and it stops on its own after a stretch, cutting a long reply short. Clavio adds a formal polish and real punctuation for you and keeps going for as long as you talk, so a proper email lands whole and ready to read. You write the message once instead of dictating it and then fixing it.
Can I dictate an email fully hands-free?
Yes — give Apple Mail a wake word and speak, with nothing to hold down; with a hotkey it's a single tap to start, then you talk the whole message. The one thing that stays manual is Send, on purpose: auto-send is off for email, so Clavio writes the draft and waits while you read it over and send it yourself. Speaking the email is hands-free; the final send is the one step you'll want to keep.
Will it make my email too formal or misspell names?
Formal polish shapes your words into a professional message without inventing points you didn't make or changing what you meant — it reads like a careful version of you, not a stranger. To keep names exact, add the clients, colleagues, and companies you write most to Clavio's dictionary, and they come through spelled right every time instead of guessed at.
Will Clavio send the email before I've read it?
No — auto-send stays off for Apple Mail by design. Clavio types the finished draft into the compose window and stops there; nothing leaves your outbox until you glance it over, add any attachment, and click Send yourself. You get the speed of dictating the whole message and keep the one deliberate step email should always have.
Can I use the same voice beyond Apple Mail?
Yes — that's the point of a system-wide app. Clavio types into your email the same way it types into Messages, Calendar, Notes, Slack, and your docs, and remembers the tone per app: formal for Mail, casual for a chat. One trigger carries you from the reply to the calendar invite to the quick message, without switching a thing.