Dictation in X

Voice dictation in X for posts, replies, and threads

X has no voice typing in the post composer, only audio voice posts. SnailText lets you speak a normal text post into X and cleans it up locally before it lands.

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AI dictation in X, on your device

SnailText is AI dictation: a speech model turns your voice into text, then a second model cleans it up, dropping filler, fixing punctuation, and matching the style your work needs. Both models run on your own machine, so nothing you say in X is uploaded for transcription. Press the hotkey, speak, and the finished text lands at your cursor.

Does X have built-in dictation?

X (formerly Twitter) has no built-in dictation in the post composer. Its "voice post" feature records an audio clip that others play back, and it is essentially mobile-only, so it never turns your speech into a typed post. On the phone, any voice typing comes from your keyboard, not from X. To dictate a text post on a computer you need a system-wide tool. SnailText injects text at the OS level, so it works in the X composer, replies, and DMs on Mac and Windows.

Speech to text in X: how it works

SnailText does not plug into X directly. It runs system-wide: a global hotkey (Option+Space (Mac) / Ctrl+Space (Windows), customizable) starts recording, the local speech-to-text engine (Whisper or Parakeet) transcribes what you said, and the text is pasted at your cursor through the system clipboard, the same way it lands when you type. That means it works in every X field, plus every other app on your Mac or Windows machine, with no extension or integration to set up.

That matters in X specifically: ideas for a post show up away from the keyboard, and by the time you sit down to type them the phrasing is gone. Speech to text removes that bottleneck without changing how you work in X.

Voice to text in X: what to dictate

Voice typing in X is not limited to one box. Press the hotkey anywhere a cursor blinks and your speech becomes text, so the things you would normally type out by hand become things you just say.

· Posts and hot takes
· Replies and quote-posts in a conversation
· Threads, dictated one post at a time
· DMs and longer responses

Talk instead of typing

Download for MacStart dictating in X and every other app

Where typing slows you down in X

· Ideas for a post show up away from the keyboard, and by the time you sit down to type them the phrasing is gone.
· X has no native voice typing in the composer, so without a system-wide tool it is keyboard-only.
· Threads are a lot of short bursts of typing where speaking each post would be faster.

Example dictations for X

Post

"Hot take: most dictation apps are fast enough now. The thing nobody optimizes for is whether your voice ever leaves your machine. That is the part I actually care about."

"This matches my experience. The speed was never the blocker, it was trusting the accuracy enough to stop proofreading every line."

Thread opener

"A short thread on why we run both the speech model and the cleanup model on-device, and what that costs us in engineering time. One."

X voice dictation FAQ

Does X (Twitter) have built-in voice-to-text?

No. X has no native dictation in the post composer. Its voice-post feature records an audio clip, not typed text, and it is essentially mobile-only. SnailText adds dictation to the X composer, replies, and DMs by inserting text at the OS level on Mac and Windows, with a local AI cleanup pass.

Is this different from an X voice post?

Completely. A voice post attaches audio that people have to listen to. SnailText turns your speech into a normal typed post that lands in the composer, so you tweet readable text, just faster than typing it.

Can I use voice typing in X?

Yes. SnailText adds voice typing to X on Mac and Windows. Press the hotkey (Option+Space (Mac) / Ctrl+Space (Windows), customizable), speak, and the text lands at your cursor in any X field, the same way it works for voice to text in every other app on your machine.

Does the dictation work offline?

Yes. SnailText runs the speech model on your device, so dictation works with no internet connection after the model is downloaded. The optional AI cleanup model runs locally too.

Is my voice uploaded anywhere?

No. Audio is processed in RAM on your machine and discarded the moment the text is ready. Nothing is sent to a server for transcription.

How much does SnailText cost?

The free tier gives you unlimited local speech-to-text with no account. Pro adds larger models and the on-device AI cleanup, $7.49/mo or $89/yr for up to 3 devices.

Start dictating in X

Free local speech-to-text, no account needed. Works in X and every other app on Mac and Windows.

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