Your granddaughter has just sent a lovely long email full of photos from her holiday, and you would dearly love to write back properly. Not a quick line, but a real reply, the sort you would have put in a letter years ago. So you sit down at the computer, and then the familiar frustration begins. Your fingers do not move as easily as they once did, the keys feel small, and by the third sentence your hands are aching and you have made more typing mistakes than you can face correcting. In the end you send a few short words, and it never quite says what you meant.
If that sounds like you, or like someone you love, this is worth reading to the end.
There is a far gentler way to write on a computer, and it does not involve the keyboard at all. It is called voice typing, and it does exactly what the name suggests. You talk, and your words appear on the screen as if by magic. Voice typing for seniors turns writing back into something you already know how to do beautifully, which is simply talking to the people you care about.
The short version: PeekoType is a Windows program that types out whatever you say. It runs entirely on your own computer, works in more than 99 languages, and costs £19.99 once with nothing more to pay ever again. Wonderful for emails, letters, birthday messages and staying close to family.
Why typing gets harder as we get older, and why that is not your fault
Let us be honest about something first. The difficulty is not a sign that you are not clever enough for computers. It is simply that keyboards ask a lot of the hands, and hands change with the years. Arthritis, stiff joints, a slight tremor, weaker grip, or eyes that find the little letters harder to see: any one of these turns typing from a mild nuisance into a real barrier. Millions of people feel exactly the same, and it has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with a fiddly keyboard.
Voice typing removes the keyboard from the equation. Instead of hunting for keys, you say your sentence out loud in a normal speaking voice, and it appears on the screen. There is nothing to memorise, no special way of speaking, and no clever computer knowledge required. If you can talk on the telephone, you can use voice typing.
The lovely things you can do once typing is easy again
Write proper emails to family and friends
This is the one that brings people the most joy. Instead of a rushed line, you can dictate a warm, chatty email to a son, daughter or grandchild, telling them about your week, asking after theirs, sharing your news. Because you are speaking rather than typing, it comes out sounding just like you, which is exactly what your family wants to read.
Keep in touch with old friends
The friends you have known for fifty years deserve more than a thumbs-up on a screen. Dictate a real message, catch up properly, arrange to meet. Speaking your words makes it effortless to write the long, newsy messages that keep a friendship alive across the miles.
Write letters, notes and cards
Letters to the council, a note to the doctor, a message to a club or a society, a thank-you card typed up neatly to print. All of it is far easier said than typed. You talk it through, read it back, and print it out or send it off.
Write down memories and family stories
Here is a quiet favourite. Many older people would love to set down their memories for the grandchildren, the story of their childhood, their working life, the way things used to be. Typing a whole life story by hand is exhausting. Talking it, on the other hand, is a pleasure. Sit comfortably, speak your memories aloud, and watch them become pages you can pass down. It is one of the most precious things this little program can do.
Fill in the everyday online bits
Comments on a family photo, a review of a book you enjoyed, a message on a community forum, a note to a neighbour. All the little written jobs that modern life throws at us become quick and painless when you can simply speak them.
Is it hard to set up? Honestly, no
This is usually the worry, and it is a fair one. The good news is that it really is straightforward. You download the program once, and after that it is ready whenever you want it. If a family member is helping you, they can have it set up in about five minutes, and then you are away.
We have written a gentle, step-by-step guide that assumes you have never done anything like this before. If you would like to see just how simple it is, or if you want to send it to the person who helps you with the computer, have a look at our voice typing for beginners guide. It walks through the whole thing calmly, one step at a time.
A gentle word about kindness to your hands
If your hands hurt when you type, please do take that seriously. Pushing on through the ache is not a virtue, and there is no medal for it. Voice typing lets you stay in touch with everyone you love without paying for it in sore fingers and stiff wrists afterwards. Plenty of people, of every age, come to dictation because typing had started to hurt, and you can read one such story in our piece on giving your wrists a rest. If you would like to understand all the different ways to use a computer without a keyboard, our guide to hands-free typing on Windows lays them out plainly.
Your words stay in your own home
Older people are quite right to be careful about privacy, and sadly there is a lot to be careful about these days. Here is something reassuring. Many voice programs send a recording of your voice off across the internet to be turned into words on a distant computer. PeekoType does not do that. Everything happens right here on your own machine. Your words, your memories, your family news: none of it is sent anywhere or stored by anyone else. It is as private as writing in a notebook at your kitchen table. If you would like to understand why that matters, our article on private, GDPR-friendly voice typing explains it in plain terms.
The cost, told to you straight
Nobody likes a hidden charge, least of all the sort that quietly takes money from your account every month forever. So here is the plain truth. PeekoType costs £19.99, and you pay it once. That is the whole cost. There is no subscription, no monthly fee, and nothing that renews itself when you are not looking. You buy it, and it is yours to keep.
Before you pay anything at all, you can try it free for fourteen days. It does not ask for any card details to start the trial, so there is no risk and nothing to cancel. Have a proper go, write a few emails, and only buy it if you find it as useful as we think you will.
How to try it this week, with no pressure
The best way to see if something suits you is to try it on a small, real job.
- Download the free trial, or ask whoever helps you with the computer to do it. It only takes a minute.
- Think of one person you owe a proper reply to, and dictate an email to them. Just talk, as if they were sitting across the table.
- Read it back, and be pleasantly surprised at how much it sounds like you.
- Once you have the knack, try writing down one memory you would like your family to have. You will be glad you did.
The bottom line
Getting older should never mean getting cut off from the people you love. If the keyboard has quietly been coming between you and the letters, emails and messages you want to write, voice typing gently takes it out of the way. You talk. The words appear. Your family hears from the real you again.
For a single payment of £19.99, with a fortnight to try it free first, that is a small price for staying properly in touch. You can start the free trial from our homepage. If you or a family member has any questions at all, do write to us at support@peekotype.com. We answer every message ourselves, in plain English, and we are always happy to help.