Dictation in Microsoft Teams on Mac

Yes, you can dictate messages in Microsoft Teams on a Mac. Click into a chat or channel reply, hold fn, say what you'd type, and let go: Sayburst drops a clean, punctuated message into the compose box, ready to send.

Teams' own speech features are about meetings, not typing. Microsoft documents live captions and transcription for calls, and its help doesn't describe a dictation button for chat messages (checked October 31, 2026). So writing a message by voice comes down to a system-wide tool: macOS Dictation, or Sayburst.

#How to set it up

1. Install Sayburst and grant Microphone and Accessibility. Microphone so it can hear you, Accessibility so it can type into Teams. It downloads a speech model once; recognition then runs on your Mac.
2. Choose the Message mode for Teams. In Sayburst's settings, assign Message to Microsoft Teams. Chat text comes out casual, without a stiff period at the end of every line.
3. Click into a compose box and hold fn. Talk, release, and the text appears. Read it, press Return. If you'd rather it send itself, turn on auto-send for Teams and Sayburst presses Return after inserting.

The same key works in the Teams app and in Teams in a browser tab, because Sayburst types like a keyboard and doesn't care which window it's typing into.

#What you say, and what lands in the chat

A quick reply to your manager:

"Yeah so I can have the, the slides done by Thursday, um, actually let's say Friday morning because legal still hasn't signed off on the numbers"

In Teams:

Yeah so I can have the slides done by Friday morning because legal still hasn't signed off on the numbers

The repeated "the", the "um" and the abandoned Thursday are gone. Sayburst resolves the self-correction, so only Friday survives.

A channel update with a list. Say "Status for this week, new line, bullet point the migration finished on Tuesday, bullet point two customers still on the old API, bullet point I'm out Friday" and you get a short status line followed by three bullets, which reads far better in a busy channel than one long sentence.

A message that would have been ten minutes of typing. Explaining a decision, giving feedback on a draft, writing up a handover before leave. These are where speaking wins: you say it in a minute, then skim and send.

#macOS Dictation vs Sayburst in Teams

macOS details are from Apple's Dictation guide. Apple's Dictation is free and good for the odd reply. If Teams is open all day and you write a lot of it, Sayburst's cleanup and per-app modes are what make dictated chat read like typed chat.

#Where your words go

• Your voice is recognized on your Mac. Sayburst never uploads audio, and the recording is deleted after transcription unless you keep it.
• Cleanup runs on your Mac as well, including Sayburst Writer. If you connect a cloud writing provider with your own key, only the text is sent, and Sayburst shows you exactly what before you switch it on.
• Teams stores the message once you send it, like any message you type, under your organization's Microsoft 365 policies.

That last point matters for work accounts: Sayburst keeps the speech step off the network, but your company still decides what belongs in Teams.

#Tips for dictating in Teams

• Mute in the call before you dictate. If you're in a meeting and want to drop something in the meeting chat, mute your Teams mic first. Your microphone is shared, so otherwise everyone hears you dictate. Sayburst's optional speaker mute keeps the call audio out of your ears while you talk.
• Add @mentions by hand. A dictated "@Dana" is just text. Type the @ and pick the person from Teams' list so they're notified, then dictate the rest of the message.
• Teach it your team. Add colleagues' names, project codenames and acronyms to Sayburst's vocabulary so "Priyanka" and "Q3 OKRs" come out right every time. See custom vocabulary for dictation.
• Use a mouse button. If your hands are on the mouse while you scroll a thread, map the middle or side button to dictation. Hold it, talk, let go.
• Switched chats mid-sentence? Sayburst keeps the text if it couldn't be inserted. Press ⌃⌥⌘V to paste your last dictation into the right conversation. More on that in never lose a dictation.

Writing longer replies in Outlook? The same setup covers dictating email in Outlook and in Word documents.

#Limits worth knowing

Sayburst is for writing, not for recording meetings. It doesn't join calls, caption them or produce a transcript with speaker names; Teams' own transcription does that, and for an existing recording you can drop the file on Sayburst's History window to transcribe it locally. Text arrives when you finish speaking rather than word by word. Sayburst runs on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later, so Teams on Windows or your phone needs the built-in options there (on Windows, the Windows key + H voice typing panel).

Questions people ask

Does Microsoft Teams have built-in dictation for chat messages?

Microsoft's Teams help documents live captions and transcription for meetings, not a dictation button for chat. On a Mac you can dictate messages with macOS Dictation or with Sayburst, which types into the Teams compose box like a keyboard.

How do I do voice to text in Teams on a Mac?

Click into the message box, hold fn, say your message and let go. Sayburst pastes the cleaned text into the compose box, and you press Return to send, or turn on auto-send for Teams.

Can I dictate a message during a Teams call?

Yes, but your microphone is shared, so mute yourself in the call first or the meeting will hear what you dictate. Sayburst can also mute your speakers while you dictate.

Is Sayburst a Teams app or add-in?

No. Sayburst is a Mac app that types wherever your cursor is. Nothing is installed in Teams, and it needs no access to your Microsoft account or tenant.