Use Transcribe for live clinical sessions. For everything else, choose from four voice input features: Dictate, Session Dictation, Inline Dictation and Mobile Dictation, each suited to a different workflow.
Which feature are you using?
Dictate: you pressed and held a hotkey to transcribe your voice as text. With the Desktop App, this works in any application or text field on your computer (EHR, documents, notes, messaging windows, and more); in a web browser, it works throughout the Heidi platform.
Session Dictation: before starting a session, you clicked the arrow on the green Transcribe button and selected Dictate. Heidi listens to your voice and generates a word-for-word document when the session ends.
Inline Dictation: inside an open session or existing Note, you clicked the microphone icon in the top-right corner of a text area and dictated directly into that field.
Mobile Dictation: you launched Heidi on your phone (iOS or Android) and selected either the in-app Dictate toggle inside a session, or your device's keyboard microphone to speak directly into any Heidi field.
Dictate
Dictate is Heidi's dedicated hotkey dictation tool. Press and hold a hotkey and your words appear directly in whatever field or document you're working in, available within Heidi in your browser or across any app on your computer via the Desktop App.
Dictate is best for: getting voice-to-text into any screen on your computer, from EHR to messaging apps and email, wherever you place your cursor.
ℹ️ Dictate is a desktop feature and isn’t available on mobile. For mobile voice input, see the Mobile Dictation section below.
Session Dictation
Use Session Dictation at the start of a clinical session. Before starting, select the arrow beside the green Transcribe button and choose Dictate. Heidi then produces a word-for-word document from everything you say, which appears in the Note tab when the session finishes.
Session Dictation is best for: letters, operative notes and reports, short-form content you're dictating solo. Not recommended for patient sessions; use Transcribe for those.
How to use it
Select the arrow on the green Transcribe button
Select Dictate from the dropdown
Speak
End the session, Heidi generates your document in the Note tab
Dictation options
Choose between Smart Dictation (structured output) or Word-for-Word (verbatim). These are default settings that apply across any dictation feature, and you can switch between them when you begin dictating.
Templates can't be applied during the session itself; apply or adjust one once the session is complete.
Audio storage
By default, audio is not stored after a session. When using Session Dictation, you can opt in to Dictation Playback before starting, this saves your audio transcription so you can replay it after the session.
Things to know
Session Dictation works best for solo dictation; for patient sessions, use Transcribe instead.
Templates for Session Dictation are only available after the initial dictation document is created. To produce a templated note from the first output, use Transcribe.
The output appears as a verbatim script in the Note tab, similar to traditional dictation software.
Inline Dictation
Inline Dictation lets you speak directly into the Note or Context fields in Heidi. It's accessed via the microphone icon inside these tabs.
Inline Dictation is best for: adding voice to text inside an existing Note or in the Context tab in Heidi. Available in the browser and desktop app.
How to use it
Open the Note or Context tab in an existing session
You can choose Smart Dictation or Word-for-Word before you start, the same dictation options available everywhere else in Heidi.
Select the microphone icon in the top-right corner of the text area
Speak. Text appears in real time
Select the microphone icon again to end
Things to know
The microphone icon appears in the top-right corner of the Note and Context tabs.
There is no audio storage for Inline Dictation.
Mobile Dictation
Mobile Dictation covers the two voice input paths available on Heidi's iOS and Android apps: in-app Session Dictation (which works the same way as on desktop and generates a word-for-word document) and your device's keyboard microphone (which dictates directly into any Heidi text field).
Mobile Dictation is best for: dictating between visits or anywhere away from your desk, anything that would otherwise need you back at a computer.
Session Dictation on mobile
Session Dictation is available on both iOS and Android.
Open the Heidi app.
Open or create a session
Use the Transcribe / Dictate toggle at the top of the screen to select Dictate.
Tap the microphone button to begin. Tap Smart Dictation at the bottom to switch between Smart Dictation and Word-for-Word Dictation.
Tap the end button when done, Heidi generates your document in the Dictation tab.
Keyboard dictation
Both iOS and Android have a built-in keyboard microphone you can use to dictate directly into any text field in Heidi, including Note and Context fields.
Tap into any text field in Heidi to bring up your keyboard.
Tap the microphone icon on your keyboard.
Start dictating, your words appear directly in the field.
Keyboard dictation is enabled by default on both iOS and Android, and can be toggled on/off in your respective device’s Settings.
Things to know
Dictate (the hotkey feature) isn’t available on mobile. Use Session Dictation on your device’s keyboard microphone for mobile voice input instead.
Keyboard dictation uses your device's built-in dictation, not Heidi's. Accuracy depends on your device, not Heidi's clinical voice model.
For patient sessions on mobile, use Transcribe, Dictation is for solo voice-to-text.