This guide covers Windows and Mac computers, not phones. The short answer: Teams and Slack give you a normal text box to type in, so a dictation tool that types where your cursor is should work there. Facts about Microsoft, Apple, Slack and Google come from their own help pages, read on 6 November 2026.
How to dictate in Teams on Windows
- Click into the message box in a chat, a channel or a meeting chat.
- Press the Windows key + H. The voice typing menu opens (on Windows 10, the dictation toolbar).
- Speak. Your words are typed in the box.
- Say “stop dictation”, or select the microphone button again, when you finish.
- Read the message, then send it yourself.
Microsoft’s voice typing page says voice typing needs the internet, a working microphone and your cursor in a text box. It does not mention Teams by name, and we did not find a Microsoft page that describes a dictation button for ordinary Teams messages. A Teams message box is a text box, so voice typing should type into it like any other.
How to dictate in Teams on a Mac
- Turn on Dictation once: open the Apple menu, then System Settings, click Keyboard, go to Dictation, switch it on and click Enable.
- Click into the Teams message box.
- Press the Microphone key if your keyboard has one, or the Dictation shortcut set in Keyboard settings.
- Speak, then press Escape, the Microphone key or your shortcut to stop. Apple says Dictation also stops by itself after 30 seconds without speech.
Apple’s page also lists Edit, then Start Dictation. We have not checked whether Teams shows that menu item.
How to dictate in Slack
Slack’s own help page about Slackbot says you can click the microphone icon to dictate a prompt to Slackbot. It says dictated messages are transcribed and the audio is not stored, and that dictation works with all of Slack’s supported languages and many others, though it is optimised for English.
That is for Slackbot. We did not see the same icon described for normal channel messages or direct messages. For those, do what you would in Teams: click into the box and start your computer’s dictation, or a dictation app.
Dictation for Chrome and other browsers
Many people look for “dictation for Chrome” or a speech to text extension for Chrome. You don’t always need one.
- Windows or Mac dictation should type into a text box in a browser, the same way as in Teams. That includes the web versions of Teams and Slack, and the prompt box in ChatGPT or Claude.
- Google Docs voice typing is a separate tool. In Google Docs, click Tools, then Voice typing. Google says it works in the latest Chrome, Edge and Safari.
- A dictation app like Talkativ is not a browser extension. It is a desktop app that types into the box where your cursor is, and a browser’s text box counts.
If you dictate prompts more than messages, our guide to voice coding with ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor covers how to say a clear prompt.
What a dictated chat message looks like
Chat messages are short, so punctuation and capital letters matter. This example is made up to show the idea; it is not a test result. You might say:
“hey Priya the deck is nearly done I will send it over this afternoon”
With punctuation and capital letters added, that becomes:
“Hey Priya, the deck is nearly done. I will send it over this afternoon.”
On Windows 11, voice typing can add the punctuation if you switch on Automatic punctuation in its gear menu; otherwise you say “comma” and “period” yourself. Apple says Mac Dictation adds commas, full stops and question marks for you in supported languages. Talkativ adds punctuation and capital letters by default.
If it still doesn’t work
- Cursor. Click into the message box again before you start.
- Internet. Windows voice typing and Talkativ both need a connection.
- Microphone access. On Windows 11, check Settings, Privacy & security, Microphone. On Windows 10, Settings, Privacy, Microphone.
- Microphone choice. On Windows, go to Settings, System, Sound, and check the right microphone is chosen under Input. On a Mac, check “Microphone source” under Dictation in Keyboard settings.
- Headset. Wireless headsets can behave differently from the laptop microphone. Try the laptop microphone to see if that is the cause.
Our voice to text not working guide goes through more fixes, step by step.
When a dictation app is worth it, and when it isn’t
If you send a few chat messages a day, the built-in tool is enough. You do not need to buy or install anything.
A dictation app helps if you write lots of messages across Teams, Slack, email and documents, and want one shortcut that behaves the same in all of them. Talkativ works in any app where you can type. You press Ctrl + Space on Windows, ⌥ Option + Space on a Mac once to start and again to stop. It adds punctuation and capital letters, leaves out “um” and “uh”, and has a Vocabulary list for names and work terms. The Free plan gives you 2,200 words a week with no card.
Talkativ does not work offline, does not transcribe audio or video files, has no phone app, and is not hold to talk. The shortcuts are fixed. It is for Windows and Mac: see Talkativ for Windows or Talkativ for Mac.