I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a reasonable typist. I probably go 50 to 60 words a minute. And I know for sure my ideas can’t come out through my fingers as quickly as they come out through my mouth.
Finding it
When I found Wispr Flow back in January, it was an absolute game changer. I started using it just for prompts and emails, and what I found was that I got my ideas out faster. I don’t mollycoddle sentences and words and fight with grammar. I just get it out, and the pace at which I write is far, far quicker.
Clever extras
It’s also got some really clever things built in. It learns words and spellings specific to you. If you start a sentence, get something wrong halfway through and start again, it knows, and it only puts down the version you meant.
Time saved
9+ hours a fortnight back
A full working day and then some.
About 20 hours a month (around 12% of a full-time working month).
How I worked it out
I've dictated 665,489 words since I signed up on 22 January. That's roughly 33,000 words a fortnight.
- Talking at 156 words a minute, that takes about 3½ hours.
- Typing is slower than my 50 to 60 words a minute once I'm working out what to say as I go. One study of everyday computer users found people type about 40% slower when they're writing their own words than when they're copying text. That puts me at around 32 words a minute, so the same words would take about 17 hours.
To be honest, that's not quite a fair fight. If I couldn't dictate, I wouldn't write as many words. I'd be more succinct when I type, so say I'd write three-quarters as many. That's still about 13 hours of typing against 3½ hours of talking.
On your phone
You can imagine my excitement when I found it also has a phone app. Just like on the desktop, you can speak anywhere you’d type. If you’re in a text message, you can speak the whole thing out. And you get all the same benefits: it knows the spelling of people’s names because you’ve taught it, it knows how you speak, and it fixes your mistakes as you go.
It’s not just me
I put Raph from The Raph Project onto it. Here’s what he told me.
Tim put me onto Wispr Flow, a tool that never crossed my mind and probably wouldn’t have without his recommendation. I use it daily now, whether I’m drafting a work email, logging progress notes, or spitballing film essay ideas out loud. Typing has started to feel obsolete. It works really well on both computer and phone, and it’s been a genuine game changer. I now find myself recommending it to people in my life.
The verdict
It’s by far the biggest AI time saver I’ve put into my workflow in the last 12 months. I tell everybody about it, and now I’m telling you.
Try Wispr Flow. That’s my referral link. I get one free month if you sign up through it, and you can do the same once you become a raging fan as well.
