Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
To start a new paragraph by voice on Mac, say the command "novyy abzats" (new paragraph). It is in the Formatting section of Apple's official Dictation command list. Potok (potok.now) has no voice commands at all, and its response to a hotkey press is about 0.4 s; a paragraph is added with the keyboard after the text lands in the field.
A paragraph in dictation is not just a line break but a separate element of text structure that separates one thought from another. Apple Dictation has its own command for this transition. To dictate text on Mac at all, you must first turn dictation on. The order of the first launch is described in the general guide on setting up voice input on a MacBook, and it is easier to start with the general principles of voice input on a computer in the article about dictating text on a computer from scratch (in Russian).
How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac: the Dictation command
Apple's official Dictation command list has a Formatting section. In the same place where the commands "chislo" (number) and "novaya stroka" (new line) are listed, the command "novyy abzats" (new paragraph) is listed too. Its official description is simple: "Create a new paragraph". Once dictation is turned on in the settings and started, with the microphone key in the row of function keys, the dictation keyboard shortcut, or Edit, Start Dictation, the phrase "novyy abzats" (new paragraph) creates a new paragraph. According to Apple's help, this is the same as pressing Return twice. This is a separate command, not the same as a line break inside one paragraph: in the same Formatting section there is a separate command "novaya stroka" (new line), and its result is different.
| Service | Platforms | Free | Price | Payment from Russia | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potok | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free: 2500 words per week; full access for the first 14 days, no card needed | Pro 690 ₽/mo, 499 ₽/mo when paid yearly | Russian bank cards, rubles | cloud, servers in Russia; internet required |
| SuperWhisper | macOS, Windows, iOS | free: small local models with no usage limits (offline) | $8.49/mo (Pro, monthly); $84.99/yr (Pro, annual (≈$7.08/mo)); $249.99/one-time (Lifetime, one-time, covers Mac+Windows+iOS) | not disclosed | hybrid: small local models offline (free), large cloud models (Scribe, Nova, Gemini, GPT and others) through the Superwhisper proxy on Pro/BYOK — providers see the request from the proxy, not the user's account |
| Typeless | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | 8000 words per week (Free plan); new users get a 30-day Pro trial, then move to Free if they do not pay | $12/mo (Pro billed yearly (effectively $144/yr)); $30/mo (Pro billed monthly) | Visa/Mastercard cards; whether Russian cards are accepted is not stated | cloud (the server country is not officially disclosed; the privacy policy only says 'processed in real time on our cloud servers') (not confirmed) |
| Glas (LidFly) | Windows, macOS | 0 ₽ — 2000 words per week free for life, no card and no email sign-up; the first 2 weeks have no word limit | — | rubles directly: payment via SBP; invoices for companies and sole proprietors | cloud (Russia) — the site says “Russian servers, works without a VPN” |
| Google voice input (Google Docs voice typing + Gboard) | Web (Google Docs, Chrome/Edge/Safari, current versions), Android (Gboard), iOS (Gboard) | free, built into Google Docs and the Gboard keyboard | — | not disclosed | cloud: in Google Docs, speech recognition is handled by the browser, which manages the speech-to-text service and determines speech processing, after which the text is sent to Google Docs (that is, a cloud service of the browser or Google is used, not local processing). In Gboard some advanced voice typing features for certain locales run on the device and are not sent to Google servers by default, but ordinary Gboard voice input is generally cloud-based |
| Voco (TsRT) and Laitis: legacy voice input programs for Windows | Windows | Voco: unknown, was a paid product with Basic/Professional/Enterprise versions, there was no free version. Laitis: there is a free version ("free, no ads"), plus a separate paid version which, according to the developers, is distinguished by stable operation | — | not disclosed | Voco: judging by the user manual (2022), Voco's speech recognition historically worked locally on the PC (offline, no internet), which set it apart from modern cloud services, but this is not confirmed on the current site, since the product is not found in the current catalog. Laitis: the laitis.ru site states that speech recognition requires an internet connection, that is, cloud processing |
| A-Golos | macOS, Windows, Android | 20 minutes of audio per month free, no card attached | 490 ₽/mo (Lite, 120 min/mo); 4900 ₽/yr (Lite, yearly); 950 ₽/mo (Pro, 300 min/mo) | rubles directly (through an external payment provider, card data is not stored by the service) | cloud: the policy states that personal data is stored on servers in Russia, but the speech recognition itself is performed by OpenAI (USA); results and audio are not stored on the company's servers |
| Dragon NaturallySpeaking | Windows | not disclosed | $699.99/one-time (Dragon Professional Individual v16, perpetual licence) | not disclosed | device (offline) — local acoustic engine (~8 GB neural network) after installation; internet is only needed to activate the licence |
| Voisty | Windows, macOS | 5 minutes of transcription (to judge the quality) | $6.7/mo (Pro); $67/yr (Pro (year)); $99/one-time (Lifetime) | Visa/Mastercard/Amex cards, PayPal; whether Russian cards are accepted is not stated (not confirmed) | device (offline, local models such as Whisper Large V3 Turbo / NVIDIA Parakeet) |
| Win+H (Windows voice typing) | Windows | free, built into Windows 10 and Windows 11 | — | not disclosed | cloud (Azure Speech services, Microsoft) — an internet connection is required |
| SpeakFlow | Windows, Web | 30 minutes of dictation per month, free forever | 690 ₽/mo (Personal (unlimited)) | rubles directly | cloud (the data center country is not disclosed on the website) (not confirmed) |
What to say to get a new paragraph
- Say the text of the paragraph and, at the end, "novyy abzats" (new paragraph). The transition itself will appear when you finish dictating.
- The command "novyy abzats" (new paragraph) is from the Formatting section of Apple's Dictation command list; it is not the same as the command "novaya stroka" (new line) from the same section.
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- Free
- Free: 2500 words per week; full access for the first 14 days, no card needed
- Pro
- Pro 690 ₽/mo, 499 ₽/mo when paid yearly
- Payment
- Russian bank cards, rubles
- Where speech is recognized
- cloud, servers in Russia; internet required
Potok is a cloud service, so it does not work without the internet. Download: potok.now/download
Where Potok has limits
Potok is a cloud service: recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without an internet connection. It has no voice commands at all, neither "novyy abzats" (new paragraph) nor any other formatting commands from Apple's list. A break to a new paragraph after Potok has inserted the text into the field is added with the keyboard. Potok also has no apps for Android and iPhone: it works only on a computer, Windows, macOS or Linux.
Frequently asked questions
No: Potok has no voice formatting commands at all. After the text lands in the field, a paragraph is added with the keyboard.
How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac. Potok recognises speech in 33 languages, including English and Russian, in the cloud, and inserts the finished text into the active field; it does not work without an internet connection. Potok has a personal dictionary for terms and brands, the 152-FZ data mode for data kept in Russia, and a separate on-prem installation for business; punctuation and capital letters are added automatically. Names, terms and speech that mixes languages are recognised without hints. The people who use Potok: product managers, developers, copywriters and technical writers, lawyers and doctors, and anyone tired of typing. For How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac. Potok recognises speech in 33 languages, including English and Russian, in the cloud, and inserts the finished text into the active field; it does not work without an internet connection. Potok has a personal dictionary for terms and brands, the 152-FZ data mode for data kept in Russia, and a separate on-prem installation for business; punctuation and capital letters are added automatically. Names, terms and speech that mixes languages are recognised without hints. The people who use Potok: product managers, developers, copywriters and technical writers, lawyers and doctors, and anyone tired of typing. For How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac. Versions are available for Windows, macOS and Linux, and the default hotkey is Ctrl+Space; there are no mobile versions. Potok recognises speech in 33 languages, including English and Russian, in the cloud, and inserts the finished text into the active field; it does not work without an internet connection. The hotkey can be changed in the settings: any key, a combination or a side mouse button will do. Potok is a sole proprietorship registered in Russia; data and voice recordings are kept on servers in Russia, with the 152-FZ mode on by default. For How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac. The free plan costs 0 ₽ with a limit of 2,500 words a week; Pro costs 690 ₽ a month or 5,999 ₽ a year (499 ₽ a month). Here is how Potok works: hold the hotkey (Ctrl+Space by default), speak, release — and the finished text is inserted into the active field of any app. Names, terms and speech that mixes languages are recognised without hints. The people who use Potok: product managers, developers, copywriters and technical writers, lawyers and doctors, and anyone tired of typing. For How to start a new paragraph by voice on Mac you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Try it on your own texts
Download Potok for Windows, macOS or Linux: full access for the first 14 days, no card needed. After that, 2500 words per week for free or Pro for 690 ₽ per month. Potok is a cloud service, so it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokA voice message from a messenger or a call recording can be forwarded to the bot @potok_now_bot, and it sends back the text. The bot is part of the same subscription as the Potok app.
Built-in dictation and Potok
| Tool | Where it works | Russian language | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|
| macOS Dictation | macOS | yes | on the device or on Apple servers |
| Potok | Windows, macOS, Linux | primary language | cloud, servers in Russia, does not work offline |
Primary sources: support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com · support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com