How to write an email by voice on a Mac.

In short: any email on a Mac can be written by voice. Click inside the message, start dictation, talk as you would on the phone, then stop and read it over. Apple’s free Dictation works for this. VybeScript is a paid app that also removes the “um”s and repeated words for you and can tidy a rambling message into a polite one.

Before you start: turn on dictation once

Every Mac has free dictation. Open the Apple menu > System Settings > Keyboard, scroll to Dictation and switch it on. Note the Shortcut it shows; that’s the key you’ll press to start talking. Our guide shows each setting: how to turn on dictation on a Mac.

Write the email, step by step

1. Open a new message in the email program you already use.
2. Fill in who it’s to. Start typing the person’s name in the To box and click their address when it appears. This is quicker and safer than spelling an address out loud.
3. Click in the Subject line and dictate a few words, like “Lunch on Thursday”.
4. Click in the big message area. The text always goes where the blinking cursor is.
5. Start dictation and talk. Say the whole message at a normal pace, as if you were leaving a voicemail.
6. Stop dictation and read the message once. Fix anything that came out wrong with the keyboard or mouse.
7. Click Send.

With Apple Dictation: saying the punctuation

Apple Dictation adds commas, periods and question marks for you in supported languages (Apple calls this Auto-punctuation). When you want to control it, say the mark out loud:

• “comma”, “period”, “question mark”, “exclamation mark”
• “new line” to drop to the next line, or “new paragraph” for a blank line between paragraphs (these show up once you finish dictating)

To stop Apple Dictation, press the Dictation shortcut again or the Escape key. It also stops by itself after 30 seconds of silence, so you can pause to think, but not for too long. The full list of words it understands is in our guide to Mac dictation commands.

With VybeScript: one key, a cleaner message

VybeScript sits in the menu bar at the top of the screen and types into Mail, Gmail, Outlook or anywhere else you click. Tap Option once to start, talk, tap Option again to stop. It adds the punctuation and, in the default Clean style, removes the filler words and repeated words people use when they talk.

Say this, as you naturally would:

“Hi Tom, um, thank you for the the lovely lunch. Uh, see you on Thursday.”

With the Clean style, VybeScript writes:

“Hi Tom, thank you for the lovely lunch. See you on Thursday.”

Two other styles help with email:

• Polish rewrites what you said into clear, tidy writing, still in your words. If you list things (“bring the photos, the cake and the chairs”), it can turn them into bullet points.
• Formal rewrites it in a formal tone, which suits a message to the bank, the insurance company or the doctor’s office.

Polish and Formal use Apple Intelligence, so they need macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on. Dictation and the Clean and Raw styles work on any Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.

Tips for emails that sound like you

• Think first, then talk. Know the two or three things you want to say before you press the key.
• Talk to the person, not the computer. “Hi Sarah, I wanted to tell you…” comes out warmer than a list of facts.
• Short messages, more often. One email per topic is easier to dictate and easier to read.
• Names that keep coming out wrong, like a grandchild’s name or a street, can be added in VybeScript’s Settings → Vocabulary so they’re spelled right every time.
• Never dictate passwords or card numbers into an email. No real bank or company asks for them that way. Our AI guide for seniors covers common scams.

Keep going

• Voice to text for seniors: the bigger picture, and how to check your Mac.
• Typing with arthritis: settings and habits that ease the typing that’s left.
• Write your memoir by voice: the same skill, for longer stories.
• Apple Dictation vs a dictation app: which one to use.

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