Dictate in any app · Media

Voice typing in OBS Studio

OBS handles the broadcast; everything the audience reads is written elsewhere. Typally puts your words into OBS Studio the moment you release the key, in whichever field you left the cursor.

This is a vendor guide from the makers of Typally. Anything we say about OBS Studio is worth verifying — third-party features change without notice.
Dictate into OBS Studio 100 free minutes every month. No card, and nothing to cancel if you stop.
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In short

  • OBS Studio's own dictation: None. It is broadcasting software with no text authoring features.
  • What Typally does instead: puts text wherever the cursor is, in OBS Studio or in anything else you have open.
  • Best used for: scene and setup documentation

Does OBS Studio have built-in dictation?

None. It is broadcasting software with no text authoring features.

Why dictate in OBS Studio at all?

Streamers and video producers configure OBS once and then spend their time on the content around it — titles, descriptions, scene documentation, community posts. None of that lives in OBS, and all of it is typed.

In practice people use it for: Scene and setup documentation, stream titles and descriptions, community posts, and text sources on screen.

How to dictate in OBS Studio

Nothing changes inside OBS Studio itself. Typally sits in the tray and types into the focused window:

1

Download and sign in

Grab the build for your platform and create an account.

2

In OBS Studio, click the field before you speak

The cursor position is the whole instruction — OBS Studio routes the keystrokes from there.

3

Talk while holding the key

The recording lasts exactly as long as you do.

4

Read it before you move on

Your microphone may be live to the stream or recording. Dictating on air broadcasts it.

What Typally adds in OBS Studio

Typally is for the writing around the broadcast — scene documentation, stream titles, community posts — none of which lives in OBS. Documenting your scene setup is worth ten spoken minutes: OBS profiles are fragile, and rebuilding one from memory after a crash costs a weekend. Do it off-air, since OBS captures your microphone.

What this looks like in practice

A streamer whose OBS profile was corrupted rebuilds it in twenty minutes from a spoken setup document written months earlier. The previous time, the same accident cost most of a weekend.

One habit that makes it work better

Document your scene setup somewhere in writing. OBS configurations are fragile and rebuilding one from memory after a crash is miserable.

What to watch out for in OBS Studio

Your microphone may be live to the stream or recording. Dictating on air broadcasts it.

Frequently asked questions

Does OBS have text features?

It can display text sources on screen, but it does not author or transcribe anything.

Can I dictate while streaming with OBS?

Your microphone is captured by OBS, so it would go out live. Do it off-air.

What should I document about my OBS setup?

Scene structure, audio routing and which sources depend on external files — the things that break and are hard to rebuild.

Try it in OBS Studio

The free plan gives you 100 minutes a month without a card — enough to find out whether talking beats typing for you.

Try Typally free

Also dictate in: Twitch · YouTube · CapCut · see all apps