Answering email is mostly typing, and Gmail is where a lot of that time goes. With Clavio you talk instead: open a compose window, tap your hotkey, and say what you want to tell someone — a formal, properly punctuated email lands in the box, filler stripped out and sentences tidied, reading like something you wrote with care. Because auto-send stays off, the message just sits there finished; you read it over and click “Send” yourself, every time. Composing, replying, forwarding — the part of Gmail that used to be typing becomes something you say.
Start in the compose window: your hotkey drops text where the cursor is
Gmail lives in a browser tab, and Clavio meets you right there. Open a compose window — or click into the reply box at the bottom of a thread — put the cursor in the message body, tap your hotkey, and speak. Finished text lands exactly where the cursor sits, whether that’s the body, the subject line, or a reply halfway down a long conversation. A hotkey is the natural fit for email because you’re already in the browser reading the thread: one tap starts the dictation and you’re talking. Prefer to keep your hands off entirely? Set a wake word instead and just start speaking — Clavio only answers to your voice, so a colleague nearby never sets it off.
A formal tone that reads like a real email, not a transcript
Email has a register that talking out loud does not, and this is where Clavio earns its place in Gmail. Keep it on a formal polish and the difference is night and day: you speak the way you’d explain the message to a colleague — loose, with the odd “um” and a sentence you start over — and what reaches the compose window is a clean, professional email. Capitals and commas are put in for you, the filler is gone, the rambling becomes tight sentences, and you never once say “comma” or “new paragraph.” It’s the setting email actually calls for — what lands in the box reads like you sat down and wrote it, not like you mumbled at your Mac.
Auto-send stays off — you read every email before it goes
An email isn’t a chat message; the wrong one can’t be unsent, so Clavio keeps auto-send off for Gmail on purpose. Your dictated message lands in the compose window and stops there — nothing is sent. You read it over, fix a name or add a line, and press “Send” yourself when it’s right. That review step is the whole point in email: you get the speed of talking a message out in a few seconds, and you keep the final say that Send should always be. Speak the reply, glance it over, send it — the fast part is dictation, the deliberate part stays yours.
One voice for the whole inbox — and everything around it
A morning in Gmail is rarely just Gmail. You reply to a client here, drop the details into a Slack thread, write the recap in a Google Doc, and fire off a calendar invite — and the same voice does all of it. Clavio types wherever your cursor is and remembers the tone for each place: formal for a Gmail message, casual for a Slack reply, plain and clean for a doc. So your inbox isn’t a separate island where you switch back to typing — it’s one stop in a day you can talk your way through, with names and terms kept straight by your personal dictionary everywhere they land.
Recommended Clavio settings for Gmail
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Activation | Hotkey | One tap starts dictation right in the compose window — the natural trigger when you’re already reading email. Prefer no keys at all? A wake word goes fully hands-free. |
| Polish level | Formal | Turns loose speech into a professional, properly punctuated email — filler removed, capitals and commas added — so it reads like you wrote it, not a transcript. |
| Auto-send | Off | The email waits finished in the compose window; you read it over and press “Send” yourself. An email can’t be unsent, so the last word stays yours. |
| Personal dictionary | Add names | Keeps colleague, client and company names — and product terms — spelled right every time they land in a message. |
| Sign-off snippet | Save your signature | Dictate the body, then a short spoken trigger drops in your full closing or signature block verbatim, so you never retype it. |
Write your 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 — a Gmail compose window, a reply box, the subject line, and every app around your inbox: Slack, Google Docs, your calendar. Trigger it with a hotkey right in the browser, or set a wake word to compose hands-free. Keep it on a formal polish that turns loose speech into a professional email — filler gone, punctuation added — and leave auto-send off so you read every message before you hit Send. A personal dictionary keeps names spelled right, a snippet drops 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 Gmail already have voice typing?
Gmail has no voice typing of its own in the browser, and your Mac’s built-in dictation only types your words exactly as spoken — lowercase, with the filler left in and no punctuation unless you say “comma” and “period” aloud, which reads nothing like a real email. Clavio is the difference: you talk naturally and a finished, formal message lands in the compose window, cleaned up and punctuated for you. And it carries on into Slack, your docs and your calendar, not just the one box.
Can I compose a Gmail email hands-free?
Yes. Set a wake word and just start talking — nothing to hold or click to dictate, and it only answers to your voice. The one thing you still do by hand is press Send: auto-send stays off for email on purpose, so every message waits in the compose window until you’ve read it and decided it’s ready. Fast to speak, deliberate to send.
Will it reword my email or misspell names?
The formal polish tidies your wording into clean sentences and fixes the punctuation, but it keeps your meaning — it’s your email, just presentable. For names that have to be right — a colleague, a client, your company, a product — add them to the personal dictionary and they land spelled correctly every time. Nothing gets garbled between what you say and what sits in the compose window.
Why is this better than just typing my emails?
Speed, without giving up control. A reply that takes a minute to type is a few seconds to say, and it lands already formal and punctuated instead of raw. Because auto-send is off, you still read every message and press Send yourself — you get the fast part, dictation, and keep the careful part, the review. It turns answering email into something closer to talking through your inbox.
Does it work outside Gmail too?
Yes — that’s the point of a system-wide app. Clavio types the same way into Slack, Google Docs, your calendar, the browser, anywhere your cursor is, and remembers the tone for each: formal for a Gmail message, casual for a chat, plain for a doc. One voice covers your inbox and everything you do around it, so you’re not switching back to the keyboard the moment you leave the compose window.