Dictate in any app · Notes

Voice typing in Standard Notes

Standard Notes is encrypted by default, which makes the audio question the first one. Typally puts your words into Standard Notes the moment you release the key, in whichever field you left the cursor.

Written by the team behind Typally. Standard Notes's own features are described as accurately as we can — check them yourself before switching anything.
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In short

  • Standard Notes's own dictation: None. The editor is deliberately plain.
  • What Typally does instead: works above the app rather than inside it — Standard Notes sees ordinary typed text.
  • Best used for: journals

Does Standard Notes have built-in dictation?

None. The editor is deliberately plain.

Why dictate in Standard Notes at all?

This is the app people pick when privacy is the requirement rather than a preference. Any tool added alongside it needs to be honest about what it transmits, or it undermines the reason the app was chosen.

In practice people use it for: Journals, private notes, credentials-adjacent documentation, and long-form personal writing.

How to dictate in Standard Notes

Typally runs in the background and types into whatever window has focus, so there is nothing to install inside Standard Notes:

1

Get Typally running

Install, sign in, and it waits in the tray.

2

Put the cursor in the Standard Notes field you are filling

Whatever has the cursor receives the text, so click the right place in Standard Notes before starting.

3

Speak with the key held down

Push to talk, say your piece, release to transcribe.

4

Read it before you move on

Encryption protects the stored note. It does not protect audio on its way to a transcription service, which is a separate step outside the app.

What Typally adds in Standard Notes

Typally types into the editor like a keyboard, and the honest caveat matters here more than most: the note is encrypted at rest, but the audio was processed by a third party before it became text. Decide the rule up front — most people settle on 'nothing I would not put in an email'.

What this looks like in practice

A journal writer decides that reflective entries get dictated and anything about other people's private circumstances gets typed. The distinction takes a second to apply and resolves the tension entirely.

One habit that makes it work better

Decide the rule before you start rather than case by case. 'Nothing I would not put in an email gets dictated' is a workable line most people can hold.

What to watch out for in Standard Notes

Encryption protects the stored note. It does not protect audio on its way to a transcription service, which is a separate step outside the app.

Frequently asked questions

Can I dictate into Standard Notes safely?

The note stays encrypted at rest. The audio is processed by a third party first, so the content was visible to that service before it became text.

Does Standard Notes have speech input?

No. Its editor is intentionally minimal.

Is there a private way to dictate?

Only fully offline transcription, which is meaningfully less accurate today. That is a real trade-off, not a marketing one.

Try it in Standard Notes

You can try this on the free plan — 100 minutes a month, no card, no trial countdown.

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Also dictate in: Joplin · Obsidian · Bear · see all apps