The InkSpoke voice keyboard (Android)
The InkSpoke voice keyboard is a system-wide input method (IME) that turns any text field on your phone into a dictation box. Instead of a full grid of typing keys, it shows a small toolbar built around one big mic button: tap it, speak, and the finished text drops into whatever app you were in.
The Android keyboard is a voice toolbar — it does not type letters. There is no key grid, autocorrect, or swipe input yet. When you need to type by hand, switch back to your usual keyboard with the switch button (covered below). Typed input is planned for a later release.
What it is
Think of it as a dictation remote that follows you into every app. Because it's a real Android keyboard, it works in your messaging app, your email, a browser address bar, a notes field — any place a keyboard normally appears. The words are transcribed by InkSpoke (on-device, cloud, or your own provider, depending on the model you picked) and committed directly into the focused field, then you're handed back to your app.
The toolbar at a glance
When you switch to the InkSpoke keyboard, you get a compact toolbar rather than a typing grid:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ✦ Email EN │ ← workspace chip · language
│ │
│ ( ● ) │ ← large mic button
│ Tap to talk │
│ ⌨ │ ← switch keyboard
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
While you're speaking, the same toolbar shows a pulsing mic, a running timer, and your words as they stream in:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ✦ Email EN │
│ 0:07 "let's ship the release on friday…" │ ← timer + live partial text
│ (( ● )) │ ← pulsing mic
│ Listening… │
│ ⌨ │
└────────── ──────────────────────────────────────────┘
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Workspace chip | Shows which workspace is active for the current app, so you can see how your words will be styled. |
| Language button | Shows the language the keyboard is transcribing in. |
| Mic button | The main control. Tap to start recording; tap again to stop. Pulses while listening and shows a live timer and partial text. |
| Switch-keyboard button | Hands off to your next input method — use it to return to your normal typing keyboard. |
The workspace chip and the language button currently display the active workspace and language — tapping them does not yet open a picker. You choose your language and manage workspaces in the main InkSpoke app; the keyboard reads those choices. In-toolbar pickers are planned for a later release.
Turn it on
The voice keyboard has to be enabled once in Android's system settings before it will appear:
- Open Android Settings → System → Languages & input → On-screen keyboards.
- Enable InkSpoke.
- In any text field, tap the keyboard-switcher and choose InkSpoke.
For the full walkthrough — including granting the microphone permission the keyboard needs — see Set up InkSpoke on Android.
The keyboard can only record once you've granted the microphone permission. Without it, the mic shows an error state instead of recording. Grant it during setup, or on your first tap.
Dictate with it
The loop is quick and it always ends with you back in your app:
- Tap into any text field and switch to the InkSpoke keyboard.
- Tap the mic. You'll feel a short haptic buzz and the mic starts pulsing. The timer runs and your words appear as live partial text as you talk.
- Tap the mic again to stop. InkSpoke transcribes what you said (and refines it if refinement is on for the active workspace).
- The final text is committed into the field you were in, and control returns to your app.
The mic tap gives a brief vibration so you know recording started, even without looking. You can turn this off with the Haptic Feedback toggle in the app's General settings (it's on by default).
How the keyboard picks a workspace
The keyboard chooses a workspace automatically based on the app you're typing in. It looks at the focused app's package name and matches it to a workspace that's been tagged for that app; if nothing matches, it falls back to your default workspace. The workspace chip shows you which one won, so an email draft can come out polished while a chat message stays casual — without you picking anything.
Auto-matching keys off a workspace tag for the app's package. Tag a workspace for the apps you want it to cover in the InkSpoke app's workspace editor, and the keyboard will pick it up the next time you dictate there. Everything else routes to your default workspace.
If a recording can't upload
When you're using a cloud model, the keyboard uploads your audio to transcribe it. If that upload fails (say you're offline), the keyboard doesn't lose your recording — it saves it and shows a toast:
Recording saved — open InkSpoke to retry
Open the main InkSpoke app to finish the transcription from your history. The keyboard itself doesn't retry in the background; the retry lives in the app. If you dictate with an on-device model instead, there's no upload step at all.
While the keyboard is loaded, InkSpoke runs a small background service to host the speech model, shown as an ongoing "InkSpoke Active" notification. That's expected — it's what lets the keyboard transcribe quickly and reliably.
Next steps
- Set up InkSpoke on Android — enable the keyboard and grant permissions.
- Dictation and features on Android — in-app recording, history, models, and workspaces.
- Sync mobile with desktop — bring your workspaces across from the desktop app.
- All mobile apps — iOS and Android at a glance.