Dictate in any app · Email
Outlook's Dictate button exists in Microsoft 365, but not in every version people actually run at work. Hold a key and talk: Typally transcribes and types it into Outlook without you touching the keyboard.
From the people who build Typally. If Outlook's own option covers your use, use it — this page will tell you when it does.Dictate on the Message ribbon in Microsoft 365 and in Outlook on the web. Which build your employer has deployed decides whether you see it, and that varies inside a single company — the classic desktop client, the new Outlook and the web version do not all behave the same way.
Corporate email means long threads, careful wording, and a lot of it. Outlook is also where dictation runs into locked-down machines, so a tool that behaves like a keyboard rather than a plugin avoids an argument with IT.
In practice people use it for: Client correspondence, internal updates, meeting follow-ups, and the careful reply to a difficult thread that has been open in a window for two days.
Setup happens once, outside Outlook, and then applies to every program on the machine:
Install, sign in, and it waits in the tray.
Whatever has the cursor receives the text, so click the right place in Outlook before starting.
Push to talk, say your piece, release to transcribe.
Outlook's recipient autocomplete reacts to typed characters, so dictate the body first and address the email last. It also removes the risk of sending a half-finished draft with a stray keystroke.
Typally works regardless of which Outlook build your employer deployed, because it needs no plugin, add-in or Microsoft 365 licence — it types like a keyboard, which is usually a much shorter conversation with IT than an add-in. Dictate the body first and address the email last.
A project lead has had a difficult thread open in a window for two days because the reply needs to be careful. He dictates it the way he would say it to the person's face, reads it back, softens two sentences, and sends. The version that took three minutes to speak and edit is warmer than the one he had been avoiding writing for two days.
Dictate difficult emails as if you were speaking to the person, then edit the tone down. It is faster to soften spoken directness than to build warmth into typed text from a cold start.
Outlook's recipient autocomplete reacts to typed characters, so dictate the body first and address the email last. It also removes the risk of sending a half-finished draft with a stray keystroke.
It is a Microsoft 365 feature and depends on your licence and build. Perpetual-licence and older deployments may not have it at all.
A dictation app that types keystrokes needs no Outlook plugin or add-in, which usually makes it simpler to run than something integrating with Outlook directly. Check your own IT policy first.
Yes. The invite body is a normal text field, so anything that types into the focused window works there.
There is a permanent free tier of 100 minutes a month. Pro costs $7.99/month and raises the limit.
Also dictate in: Gmail · Microsoft Word · Slack · see all apps