Auto mode
Auto mode is the YapToText setting that gives you dictation that formats emails automatically. Say something shaped like a letter, with a greeting and a sign-off, and it comes out as a formatted email. Say something casual and it stays exactly as spoken. Everything else gets the standard cleanup, which fixes what the microphone misheard and never rewrites your voice.
I dictate everything, and I got tired of picking a mode before every dictation. With Auto on, you stop picking modes. Your speech is transcribed by the bundled Whisper Large v3 Turbo, and only genuinely ambiguous dictations consult the bundled cleanup model, Phi-3.5 Mini. Both run on your Mac. Nothing leaves the machine.
What each dictation turns into
Every dictation is screened in an instant and routed to the right treatment.
- Email. A letter with a greeting and a sign-off becomes a formatted email: short paragraphs, the body only with no Subject line, and your own name on its own line at the end if you said it. If you opened with Dear Jessica, the email is addressed to her.
- Casual chat. Casual chat stays exactly as spoken.
- Everything else. Ordinary speech gets the standard cleanup described below.
- Code. Dictating into an editor leans toward Code Comment mode, which keeps identifiers, casing, and technical terms exactly as spoken.
Auto never turns your speech into a bulleted list or a headed note on its own. That only happens when you pick Note mode or end the dictation with as a bullet list.
How it decides
Auto reads more than the words. Only genuinely ambiguous dictations consult the cleanup model, so the common cases add no delay.
- A spoken directive at the end. An instruction like make that formal becomes an instruction instead of text.
- The words themselves. The dictation is screened in an instant. A letter with a greeting and a sign-off is an email. Casual chat is kept as spoken.
- The app you are dictating into. Mail leans email. Messages leans casual. Editors lean code.
- The cleanup model. A dictation that is still genuinely ambiguous after all that consults the bundled cleanup model.
Whatever it picks, the output stays in the language you spoke. And if you selected text before you started, Auto reads that selection through Accessibility, nothing is copied, and writes your reply to fit what it is responding to.
Steer it with your voice
End a dictation with a directive and it becomes an instruction instead of text. The words are not typed.
- make that formal
- make it concise
- as a bullet list
as a bullet list is the one way to get bullets out of Auto without picking Note mode.
Greetings and sign-offs
Email mode uses only what you said. A greeting is added only if the dictation names or clearly implies a recipient, like hi Jessica. Otherwise the email starts with the message.
If the dictation ends with your own name, that is the sign-off. It goes on its own line at the end, never inside a sentence. A closing is added only if one fits naturally, and the app does not invent pleasantries you did not say. If no name is available for a sign-off, the sign-off is left out. The app never writes placeholder text like [Your Name]. It never writes a Subject line, and it adds no facts that were not spoken.
Cleanup that never rewrites
When Auto picks the cleanup treatment, your words go through the standard Clean Up mode. It treats the input as a transcript of live speech and repairs it without changing the meaning or adding information.
- A word that is clearly a recognition error is replaced with the word you most likely meant. Stray fragments that make no sense in context are dropped, but never real content.
- Filler words like um and uh, and false starts, are removed. Grammar, capitalization, and punctuation are fixed.
- Spoken numbers become digits, but no unit or time of day is added that you did not say. Spoken web addresses and email addresses are written in proper form.
- Your wording, tone, and language are kept. Casual words are not formalized, and blunt, harsh, or profane language is not softened. Nothing is translated. If it is unsure whether something is an error, it stays as spoken.
- No sentence is deleted, nothing is shortened or summarized, every clause you said is kept, and nothing is replaced with an ellipsis.
Since 1.4, cleanup can no longer drop a sentence or add an ellipsis you did not say.
Turning it on and off
Turn Auto mode on or off in Settings, in the Home page's quick controls, or during setup. Auto also sits in every mode list with its own number key. Picking it from a mode list turns Auto on, and pressing another mode's number while dictating picks that mode for that dictation instead.
Auto depends on the post-transcription analysis master switch. Turn that off and you get the fastest possible raw transcription: the app types exactly what you said, with no modes, formatting, or cleanup.
Questions
Does YapToText format emails automatically?
Yes, with Auto mode on. A dictation shaped like a letter, with a greeting and a sign-off, is formatted as an email in short paragraphs, addressed to the person you named, and signed with your own name if you ended with it.
Why did Auto mode not clean up my casual message?
Casual chat stays exactly as spoken on purpose, so a quick message reads the way you said it. End the dictation with "make that formal" or "make it concise" if you want it rewritten, or press the Clean Up number key while dictating.
Why does Auto mode never give me bullet points?
Auto never turns speech into a bulleted list or a headed note on its own. Ask for it by ending the dictation with "as a bullet list", or pick Note mode.
Where does Auto mode get the name for the email sign-off?
From what you said. End the email with your own name and it becomes the sign-off on its own line. If no name is available, the sign-off is left out, and the app never writes a placeholder like [Your Name].
Does Auto mode send my dictation anywhere to decide?
No. The screening and the cleanup model both run on your Mac. The app makes no network calls during normal use; the only network activity is a model download you start yourself.