PeekoType User Guide

Everything PeekoType does, in the order you will meet it — from opening the app for the first time to the last button in the last dialog. Every control in the window is listed here with what it does and when you would want it.

For PeekoType 3.0 on Windows · Last updated 31 August 2026

1First run

PeekoType is a normal Windows application. There is no account to create, nothing to sign in to, and no internet connection needed once it is installed.

Install and open it
Run the installer and launch PeekoType from the Start menu or desktop shortcut. The window is deliberately small and fits on one screen — nothing scrolls, so every control is visible at once.
Let the speech model download
The first time you use a given model size, PeekoType downloads it once and keeps it on your computer. This is the only step that needs the internet. After that the app works fully offline, aeroplane mode included.
Your 14-day trial starts automatically
Every feature is unlocked during the trial, file transcription included. Nothing is charged and no card is required to start.
Check your microphone
Pick your device in the Microphone dropdown and press Test. See The Dictate tab below.

Nothing leaves your computer. Your audio is processed on your own device by an offline model. There is no cloud service behind PeekoType, no telemetry and no account, which is what makes it safe for confidential work. The ● Works offline badge next to the title and the 🛡 Private • 🟢 Offline label at the bottom of the window are there to confirm that at a glance.

2The window at a glance

Three parts stay on screen no matter which tab you are on: the title bar at the top, the tab switcher below it, and the model bar along the bottom.

Title bar

Control	What it does
● Works offline	A status badge, not a button. Confirms the app is running entirely on your device.
Moon toggle	Switches between dark and light themes. The change is instant and applies to every window, including any dialog you already have open — nothing is lost or reset when you switch.
📌 Pin	Keeps the PeekoType window on top of every other window. Useful when you are dictating into a document and want to keep an eye on the recording status. Click again to unpin; the button stays highlighted while pinning is active.

Tab switcher

Tab	What it is for
🎤 Dictate	Live voice typing into whatever application you are using. This is the main tab.
📄 Transcribe	Turning existing audio and video files into text — see File transcription.

Model bar (bottom of the window)

The Model dropdown sets the speech recognition model used by both tabs. Larger models are more accurate and slower; smaller ones are faster and lighter on your processor.

Model	Best for
`tiny`	Older or low-powered PCs, and quick notes where speed matters more than precision.
`base`	The default. A good balance on a typical laptop.
`small`	Noticeably better with accents and technical words. The sweet spot for most people.
`medium`	High accuracy. Best on a reasonably fast machine.
`large`	The most accurate. Recommended if you have a GPU.

Changing model downloads it once. Each size is a separate download the first time you select it. If you switch models and nothing happens for a moment, it is fetching the model — the status line tells you.

3The Dictate tab

The row across the top of the Dictate tab is your setup: which microphone to listen to, and which language you will be speaking.

Control	What it does
🎙 Microphone	Every input device Windows can see: built-in laptop microphone, headset, USB microphone, webcam microphone. If you plug in a new device after opening PeekoType, restart the app so it appears in the list.
🌐 Language	The language you are going to speak. 100 languages are supported. Set this correctly — accuracy drops sharply if PeekoType is expecting the wrong language.
🎚 Test	Records a short sample from the selected microphone and reports the level it picked up. Run this once when you set up a new device, and again if dictation suddenly stops producing text.

You can change the language between sentences. Nothing is locked in for a session — switch the dropdown and the next thing you dictate is transcribed in the new language.

4Recording & the F9 key

The large purple card in the middle of the Dictate tab is the record button. It shows the microphone, a live waveform while you speak, and the current status.

The PeekoType Dictate tab, showing the record card, the Smart output toggles and the Last transcription panel — The Dictate tab. The record card is the large purple panel; Smart output sits below it.

The basic loop

Click where you want the text
Put your cursor in the Word document, email, browser field, chat box or code editor first. PeekoType types into whatever window was active when you started recording.
Press F9 — or click the record card
Recording starts immediately. You do not need to bring the PeekoType window to the front; F9 works globally, from inside any application.
Speak normally
Talk at a natural pace. There is no need to over-enunciate or leave gaps between words. Punctuation is added for you.
Press F9 again to stop
PeekoType transcribes what it heard and types it at your cursor. The status shows ⏳ Transcribing… while it works.

What the status line is telling you

Status	Meaning
✅ Ready	Idle and waiting. Press `F9` or click the card to start.
🎤 Recording…	Listening now. Click the card or press `F9` to stop.
⏳ Transcribing…	Converting your speech to text. This takes a moment on larger models.
🔇 No speech detected	The recording was silent. Check the right microphone is selected and try holding the key while you speak.
❌ Recording too short	You tapped `F9` rather than recording a phrase. Speak for at least a second.

If F9 does not respond, another application may have claimed the key. The record card always works as a fallback, and the status line will tell you if the hotkey failed to register at startup.

5Smart output toggles

The ✨ Smart output card controls what happens to your words between PeekoType hearing them and them landing on screen. Each row is a switch you can turn on or off independently.

Method

The dropdown in the card header decides how text is delivered to the other application:

paste — puts the text on the clipboard and pastes it. Fast, and the default. Best for long dictations.
type — simulates individual key presses. Slower, but works in the occasional application that blocks pasting. Try this if text is not appearing in one specific app.

The eight toggles

Toggle	What it does
🖥 Send to active app	Types your words straight into whatever window you were last using. Turn this off if you want PeekoType to capture your speech without typing it anywhere — the text still appears in the transcript panel, ready to copy.
🧹 Remove filler words	Strips “um”, “uh”, “er”, “ah”, “hmm”, “mm-hmm” and similar sounds. Only whole words are removed, so “umbrella” and “error” are safe.
📋 Auto-format lists	Turns a spoken list into a real numbered list. See Voice commands for the exact phrasing.
⌘ Voice commands	Enables spoken punctuation and control words — “period”, “comma”, “new line”, “delete”. Turn this off if you frequently dictate text that literally contains those words.
💬 Text snippets	Enables voice-triggered saved text. The Manage link beside this row opens the snippet editor — see Text snippets.
🕐 Save history	Keeps a searchable local record of everything you dictate. Turn it off and nothing is written to disk. See History.
↵ Add newline	Adds a line break after each dictation, so consecutive bursts do not run together on one line. Handy for notes and lists; leave it off for flowing prose.
🐞 Debug	Prints detailed logging to the console. Only needed when diagnosing a problem or when support asks for it.

Capitalisation and full stops are automatic and are not a toggle. PeekoType makes sure each utterance ends with a sentence terminator and that sentences start with a capital letter, so separate bursts of dictation chain together as proper sentences.

6Voice commands

With Voice commands switched on, certain words are treated as instructions instead of text. Punctuation commands work at the end of what you say, and can be chained.

Punctuation and line breaks

Say	You get
“period” / “full stop”	`.`
“comma”	`,`
“question mark”	`?`
“exclamation mark” / “exclamation point”	`!`
“colon”	`:`
“semicolon”	`;`
“new line”	A line break
“new paragraph”	A blank line, then a new paragraph

These stack, so “thanks very much comma new line” gives you Thanks very much, followed by a line break.

Deleting

Say “delete” or “backspace” on its own — as the entire utterance, with nothing else — and the last thing you dictated is removed. “Please delete” and “just delete” work too.

Commands must be the whole utterance to trigger a deletion. This is deliberate. A sentence that happens to contain the word “delete” in the middle is typed as ordinary text, never treated as a command, so you cannot wipe out a paragraph by mentioning the word in passing.

Numbered lists

With Auto-format lists on, start with a trigger phrase — “make a list”, “create a list”, “here’s a list” — then separate items with spoken numbers or the word “next”:

You say: “Make a list one milk two bread three eggs”

You get:
1. Milk
2. Bread
3. Eggs

The trigger phrase is required so that ordinary prose containing words like “one” and “two” is never mangled into a list by accident. Spoken numbers up to twelve are recognised.

7Edit by voice

Edit commands go further than a plain delete: they remove the last sentence or the last paragraph you dictated, without you touching the mouse or keyboard.

Say	Result
“delete that” / “delete this”	Removes the last sentence you dictated
“delete that last sentence”	Removes the last sentence
“scratch that”	Removes the last sentence
“undo” / “undo that”	Removes the last sentence
“delete that last paragraph”	Removes the last paragraph
“undo last paragraph”	Removes the last paragraph

How it works, and its limits

PeekoType remembers what it typed, so it knows exactly how much to remove. That memory is deliberately bounded and short-lived:

It is never saved to disk — it exists only while the app is running.
It is tracked per window. Switch to a different application and the history is discarded, because there is no safe way to know what you have since changed by hand.
A single command can only reach back so far, so it can never eat a whole session's work.

Like the delete command, these must be said as the complete utterance on their own.

What edit commands cannot do. They delete text that PeekoType typed; they do not rewrite it. “Make this shorter” or “say that more formally” would need a model that generates new wording, which is a different kind of AI from speech recognition and is not part of PeekoType.

8The transcript panel

Underneath the record card, Last transcription keeps a copy of what you just dictated — a safety net for when text goes into the wrong window, or the application you were dictating into does something unexpected.

Four buttons sit in the panel header, and a fifth below the text box:

Button	What it does
📖 Vocabulary	Opens the custom vocabulary manager, where you teach PeekoType names and jargon it keeps getting wrong. See Custom vocabulary.
🕐 History	Opens your searchable transcription history. See History.
📋 Copy	Copies the text shown in the panel to the clipboard.
🗑 Clear	Empties the panel. This only clears the display — it does not delete anything from your saved history.
🔊 Read Aloud	Reads the text back to you in a natural voice. Click again (the button becomes ⏹ Stop) to stop early. See Read aloud for voice downloads.

9Custom vocabulary

If PeekoType keeps mishearing a colleague’s name, a product, an acronym or a piece of industry jargon, add it here. The words you save are used as a hint on every future transcription.

The PeekoType Custom Vocabulary dialog, with a word list, an entry box, and Add, Remove selected, Save and Cancel buttons — The Custom Vocabulary manager. Changes are staged in the list and only written on Save.

Open it with the 📖 Vocabulary button in the Last transcription header.

Control	What it does
Word list	Everything you have taught PeekoType so far. Click an entry to select it; hold `Ctrl` to select several.
Text box	Type a word or short phrase to add. Press `Enter` or click Add.
Add	Adds what is in the text box to the list. Duplicates are ignored.
Remove selected	Deletes the highlighted entries from the list.
Save	Writes the list to disk and closes the dialog. Your changes only take effect when you press Save.
Cancel	Closes without saving. Anything you added or removed in this session is discarded.

Getting good results

Add the spelling you want to see, not a phonetic version.
Short phrases work as well as single words — a full name is often better than a first name alone.
Keep the list focused. It is capped at 200 entries, and a very long list dilutes the hint rather than sharpening it. Add the terms you actually use.

This boosts recognition; it does not force it. A saved word is much more likely to be recognised, but PeekoType still transcribes what it hears — it will not substitute your word for something that sounds nothing like it.

10Text snippets

A snippet is a block of saved text with a spoken trigger phrase. Say the trigger on its own and the whole block is typed — a sign-off, a disclaimer, an address, a standard paragraph you send every week.

The PeekoType Text Snippets editor, with a trigger list on the left and trigger phrase and saved text fields on the right — The snippet editor: triggers on the left, the phrase and its saved text on the right.

Turn on the 💬 Text snippets toggle, then click Manage next to it to open the editor.

Control	What it does
Trigger list	Your saved snippets, listed by trigger phrase. Click one to load it into the form.
Trigger phrase	What you will say out loud, e.g. “insert signature”. Keep it distinctive so you do not fire it by accident.
Saved text	The text that gets typed. It can be several lines long.
New	Clears the form to start a fresh snippet.
Save entry	Stores the snippet currently in the form into the list.
Delete	Removes the selected snippet from the list.
Save All	Writes every change to disk and closes. Nothing is saved permanently until you press this.
Cancel	Closes and discards all changes made in this session.

Triggers only fire when spoken alone. Just like voice commands, the trigger phrase must be the entire utterance. Mentioning “insert signature” in the middle of a sentence types the words, not the snippet. You can save up to 100 snippets.

11History, translate & read aloud

With 🕐 Save history switched on, every dictation is logged on your computer and stays searchable. Open it with the 🕐 History button.

The PeekoType Transcription History window, with a search box, entry list, full-text pane and Copy, Translate, Read Aloud, Delete and Clear all history buttons — Transcription History. The search box filters as you type; the buttons act on the selected entry.

Finding things

The search box filters as you type — type any word you remember saying and the list narrows immediately. Click an entry and its full text appears in the Full text pane below.

Every button in the History window

Button	What it does
📋 Copy	Copies the selected entry to the clipboard.
🌐 Translate	Translates the selected entry into another language, offline. Pick the language when prompted. The button then becomes ↩ Show Original so you can flip back and forth.
🔊 Read Aloud	Reads the entry currently on screen out loud. If you are viewing a translation, it is read in that language with a matching voice.
🗑 Delete	Removes the selected entry from your history.
Clear all history	Deletes every saved entry. You are asked to confirm first; it cannot be undone.
Close	Closes the window. Your history is kept.

On-device translation

Translation runs on your machine like everything else. The first time you translate into a given language, PeekoType downloads that language pack once; afterwards it works offline. Roughly 49 languages are available.

Read-aloud voices

Read Aloud needs a voice for the language it is reading. The first time you use a new language, PeekoType offers to download a voice for it — a one-off download of a few megabytes. Your choice is remembered per language, so English text is read in your English voice and French text in your French voice, automatically.

In the voice picker, More voices (49 languages)… fetches the full catalogue if you want a different accent or a language that is not listed yet.

Read Aloud is not only for proofreading. Hearing a draft read back catches clumsy sentences the eye skims over, and it is a genuinely useful accessibility tool for dyslexic and ADHD readers.

12Live captions

Live captions subtitle any Windows video call — Teams, Zoom, Meet, a webinar, a YouTube video — by listening to what is coming out of your speakers and showing it in a floating overlay.

Start it from the 💬 Live Captions card on the Dictate tab.

Click 🎬 Live Captions
A caption model loads the first time — the overlay tells you while this happens.
The overlay appears
Drag it by its title bar to wherever suits you. It floats above other windows so it stays visible during a call.
Optionally translate the captions
Use the 🌐 dropdown in the overlay to caption a call in a different language from the one being spoken.
Stop when you are done
Click ⏹ Stop in the overlay, the ✕ to close it, or ⏹ Stop Live Captions back in the main window.

Nothing joins your meeting. There is no bot, no participant to admit and no meeting link to paste. PeekoType captures the audio already playing on your own device, which means it works on any call in any application — and no one else in the meeting can tell.

Captions read your speakers, not your microphone. They capture what you can hear, so your own voice is not captioned unless it is coming back through the call. If nothing appears, check that sound is actually playing out of the device Windows is using.

13File transcription

The 📄 Transcribe tab turns recordings you already have — interviews, meetings, lectures, voice notes, video — into text files. Whole folders can be processed in one go.

Included in the one price. File transcription is part of PeekoType, not a paid add-on — it works throughout your 14-day trial and with any licence key. If the trial ends before you buy, the tab shows an 🔑 Enter License Key button; entering your key unlocks it immediately, with no restart.

The PeekoType Transcribe tab with its drop zone, transcription queue, and output format, speaker detection and translation settings — The Transcribe tab. Files can be dropped anywhere on the window, not just the drop zone.

Adding files

Control	What it does
Drop zone	Drag files or folders onto the PeekoType window from anywhere. Dropping files also switches to this tab automatically.
📁 Choose files	Opens a file picker. Select as many files as you like at once.
📂 Choose folder	Adds every supported audio and video file in a folder.
✕ Remove selected	Takes the highlighted files back out of the queue.
🗑 Clear all	Empties the queue entirely.

Supported formats: MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, AAC, WMA, MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, AVI and M4V.

Transcription settings

Setting	What it does
Output format	`txt` plain text · `srt` and `vtt` timed subtitles · `docx` a Word document · `pdf`. The result is saved next to the original file.
Detect speakers	Adds speaker labels, so an interview reads as a conversation instead of one block of text. Off by default: the first use downloads its models, and it makes transcription noticeably slower.
Translate to	Also saves a translated copy of the transcript in the language you pick. More languages refreshes the list — useful if the app started without an internet connection.

Running the batch

Press ▶ Transcribe to start. The progress bar tracks the whole batch and the status line underneath reports the file being worked on. The button stays disabled until there is at least one file in the queue.

There are no per-minute charges and no upload. Files never leave your computer, so length is limited only by your own patience and disk space. A long recording on a small model is dramatically faster than on a large one — worth testing on one file before queuing fifty.

14Trial, licence & upgrades

The free trial

PeekoType runs for 14 days with every feature unlocked, file transcription included, so you can judge it properly before paying. No card is needed to start.

One product, one price

There are no tiers, editions or add-ons. Every feature described in this guide — dictation into any app, voice and edit commands, vocabulary, snippets, history, translation, read-aloud, live captions and batch file transcription with speaker detection — is included in a single £39 one-off payment. Not a subscription: you buy it once and keep it, updates included. See current pricing.

Entering your licence key

Open the 📄 Transcribe tab and click 🔑 Enter License Key, then paste the key from your confirmation email. The app unlocks straight away — no restart needed. The dialog also shows which key is currently active.

Portable mode

PeekoType can run entirely from a single folder — a USB stick, for instance — keeping its settings, vocabulary, snippets and history inside that folder instead of in your Windows user profile. It is off by default and switched on by placing a marker file next to the program; delete the marker to go back to a normal installation.

15Troubleshooting

Problem	What to try
Nothing is transcribed	Check the correct device is chosen in the Microphone dropdown and press Test. If the level is flat, Windows is not receiving audio from that device.
Text appears in the wrong window	PeekoType types into whichever window was active when recording started. Click into the target field before pressing `F9`. Your words are still in the Last transcription panel — press Copy and paste them.
Text does not appear in one particular app	Switch Method from `paste` to `type`. Some applications block programmatic pasting.
`F9` does nothing	Another program has claimed the key. Use the record card instead, or close the conflicting application.
Accuracy is poor	Confirm the Language is right, move up a Model size, and add problem words to your custom vocabulary. A headset microphone beats a laptop's built-in one by a wide margin.
Words are being deleted unexpectedly	You are probably triggering a voice command. Turn off the Voice commands toggle if you often dictate the words “delete”, “undo” or “scratch that” on their own.
Transcription is very slow	Drop to a smaller Model. `large` is designed for machines with a GPU; `base` or `small` is far quicker on a typical laptop.
Live captions show nothing	Captions listen to your speakers, not your microphone. Make sure audio is genuinely playing through the output device Windows is currently using.

Still stuck? Email support@peekotype.com and describe what you were doing when it went wrong.

16PeekoType on Android

The phone version is a keyboard, not a window. There is nothing to switch to and nothing to copy out of: you enable it once, and from then on the microphone is there in every app you type into. Everything below is specific to Android — the fifteen sections above describe the Windows app.

Installing it

Download it from this website, or from Google Play. They are the same app. Installing the download means allowing your browser to install it once, which Android will ask about — that prompt is Android checking you meant to, not a warning about the app. You need Android 8.0 or later on a 64-bit phone.

First run

The app opens on a checklist of four things, in order:

Enable the PeekoType keyboard. This opens your phone's keyboard settings. Android shows a warning about keyboards being able to collect what you type; that warning appears for every keyboard, and in PeekoType's case nothing is collected or sent — see the privacy policy.
Allow microphone access. Without it the microphone key does nothing.
Choose a speech model. It downloads once, over Wi-Fi, and then works offline forever.
Try it. A box to dictate into, to prove it works before you rely on it.

Choosing a model

Base is the right choice for almost everyone: 60 MB, accurate, and fast enough on any modern phone. Tiny is 32 MB and quicker, worth trying if Base feels slow on an older handset. Both are free, for good.

Small is the most accurate, but at 190 MB it is too large to run inside a keyboard, so it is used only for transcribing recordings. Online AI sends your speech to OpenAI instead of using the phone; it is the most accurate of all and the only setting where words appear while you are still talking, and it needs an OpenAI key you pay for yourself.

Dictating

Switch to the PeekoType keyboard, tap the microphone, speak, and tap it again. The words go straight into whatever you were typing into. Punctuation and edit commands work as they do on the desktop — "full stop", "new paragraph", "scratch that".

The floating microphone

A button that sits above every app, so you can dictate without switching keyboards first. Drag it where you like; it remembers.

Transcribing a recording

Turn a voice memo, an interview or the audio of a video into text, on the phone. Long files are processed in pieces and the job survives you leaving the app, so a two-hour recording does not need you to sit and watch it.

Reading aloud

Has the phone speak text back to you in a natural voice, generated on the device rather than streamed. The voice downloads once, like the speech models.

What it costs, and entering a key

Dictating with Tiny and Base is free forever. One payment of £4.99 adds everything else: the Small model, transcribing recordings, custom vocabulary, read aloud, the floating microphone, live typing and AI cleanup.

If you bought from Google Play, it unlocks itself. If you bought from this website, you are emailed an unlock key: open the app, tap Unlock everything, tap I have a key, and paste it in. Keep that email — it is how you restore the unlock on a new phone.

PeekoType for Windows and PeekoType for Android are separate products. Buying one does not include the other, and a key for one will not work in the other.

Try it on your own work

Every feature in this guide is unlocked for 14 days. No card, no account, and nothing you say leaves your computer.

Start Free Trial