Dictation for Gmail on Mac

Yes, you can dictate email in Gmail on a Mac, and you don't need a browser extension to do it. Gmail on the web has no microphone button in the compose window, so the dictation has to come from your Mac. With Sayburst you click into the message, hold fn, say the email, and let go. A finished draft with a greeting, paragraphs and a sign-off appears where your cursor was.

It works the same in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave or Firefox, and in Apple Mail if you read Gmail there.

#How to set it up

1. Install Sayburst and allow two permissions. Microphone lets it hear you; Accessibility lets it type into your browser. The speech model downloads once, and from then on recognition runs on your Mac.
2. Set your browser to Email mode. In Sayburst's settings, choose a writing mode per app. Pick Email for the browser you use Gmail in (and for Mail, if you use it). If you also chat in that browser, leave it on Clean and switch to Email from the menu bar when you write a long message.
3. Open Compose, click into the body, and hold fn. Talk the way you'd explain it to someone across the desk. Let go and the text drops in. For a longer reply, tap fn once to go hands-free, and tap it again when you're done.

To put a quick line in the subject field, click there first and dictate. Sayburst types into whichever field has focus, so the To, Subject and body fields all work.

#Three emails, said and sent

A reply to a client, with Email mode and Sayburst Writer on. What you say:

"Hi Marcus, thanks for sending the contract over. Um, I read through it last night and it mostly looks good. New paragraph. The one thing I'd change is the payment terms, we'd need net thirty instead of net fifteen. Uh, can you check with your finance team? Thanks, Priya."

What lands in the compose window:

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for sending the contract over. I read through it last night and it mostly looks good.

The one thing I'd change is the payment terms: we'd need net 30 instead of net 15. Can you check with your finance team?

Thanks, Priya

A scheduling note with a change of mind. You say "Can we move our call to Thursday at four, sorry, Friday at four, my Thursday filled up." Sayburst Writer keeps the correction and drops the false start: "Can we move our call to Friday at 4? My Thursday filled up."

A quick internal list. In Notes mode, "For the offsite we still need the room booking, the dinner reservation and the, the shuttle times" becomes three bullets: room booking, dinner reservation, shuttle times. Paste-ready for an email to the team.

The Writer is the optional on-device model that turns talk into written email. Without it, the built-in cleanup still removes the "ums", fixes punctuation and handles "new paragraph". If a rewrite would change a number you said, Sayburst types the cleaned transcript instead, so "net thirty" never quietly becomes something else.

#Gmail's built-in options vs Sayburst

Gmail itself gives you two voice-adjacent things: the keyboard microphone in the Gmail phone app, and "Help me write", which drafts an email from a typed prompt. On a Mac in a browser, your free option is Apple Dictation. Here's how they line up for writing a real email at your desk.

Help me write details are from Google's Gmail Help, and Apple Dictation details from Apple's Mac User Guide, both checked October 31, 2026. Apple Dictation is a good free start: it types anywhere you can type and adds basic punctuation. It doesn't clean up how people actually talk, and it stops after 30 seconds without speech. If you answer email for a living, the layout and cleanup are what save you the second pass. The longer story is in Sayburst vs Apple Dictation.

#What happens to your words

Three separate steps, three separate answers:

• Your voice is turned into text on your Mac. Sayburst never uploads audio and never signs in to your Google account.
• Cleanup and layout also run on your Mac, including Sayburst Writer. If you choose to connect a cloud writer with your own API key instead, only the text goes to that provider, and Sayburst shows you what will be sent before you turn it on.
• Gmail stores the draft and the sent email in your Google account, exactly as it would if you'd typed it.

So the private part is the voice. Whatever you put in an email is still an email.

#Tips for Gmail

• Dictate the reply, not the quote. Click into the reply above the quoted thread before you hold fn, so your text doesn't land in the middle of the old message.
• Teach it your contacts. Add client names, product names and the spelling of your own surname to Vocabulary. If you fix a name by hand after dictating, Sayburst offers to add it.
• Use replacements for things you type all day. Map "my calendar link" to your booking URL, or "my phone" to your number.
• Rewrite in place. Select a paragraph you dictated, hold the rewrite shortcut and say "make this warmer" or "shorter, keep the dates". The selection is replaced.
• Lost focus mid-sentence? If you clicked over to another tab before letting go, nothing is lost. Press ⌃⌥⌘V to paste the last dictation, or find it in History. More on that in never lose a dictation.

For email habits that work in any client, see how to write email by voice on a Mac. If you also write long documents in the browser, the same shortcut works in Google Docs.

#Limits

Sayburst isn't a Gmail add-on or a Chrome extension, so it can't send, label or search mail for you; it writes text and you press Send. The text arrives when you finish speaking, not word by word, though the overlay shows your words as you go. It runs on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later. On a phone or a Windows PC, use the dictation built into your keyboard or operating system instead.

Questions people ask

How do I dictate in Gmail on a Mac?

Gmail in the browser has no dictation button of its own, so you use a Mac-level tool. With Sayburst, click into the compose window, hold fn, speak, and let go; the text lands at your cursor. Apple Dictation also works there for free.

Is there a dictation extension for Gmail?

There are third-party Chrome extensions, but you don't need one. Sayburst is a Mac app, not an extension, so it works in Gmail in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox or any other browser, and in Apple Mail too.

Can Gmail voice typing add punctuation and paragraphs?

Sayburst punctuates and capitalizes automatically and removes fillers. In Email mode it puts the greeting, paragraphs and sign-off on their own lines, and saying "new paragraph" starts one where you want it.

Does Sayburst read my Gmail inbox?

No. Sayburst never signs in to Google. It types into the field your cursor is in, the same way you would, and your audio is transcribed on your Mac.

Does voice typing work in the Gmail app on iPhone?

Sayburst is Mac-only. On iPhone or Android, use the microphone key on your phone's keyboard in the Gmail app.