Talk & Write

Starting stuff using a keyboard is not a strenuous activity, one can say, but some individuals have so much to type in a day that their fingers are cramping. You've surely heard about voice-to-text software by now, and that seems like a good alternative to typing your fingers off. There are lots of such applications out there, but we're going to focus on Talk & Write — a simple Chrome extension that spares you some typing, without impacting your productivity.

The UI can be brought forward by clicking on the extension's icon. Inside the layout, a large text panel and, three commands, and a language selector can be found. Due to its reduced complexity, this application can be mastered in a couple of minutes.

Before engaging the add-on, you must ensure a microphone is connected to your machine. Click on the mic button to activate the app. While active, the microphone icon will display a constantly moving red bubble.

Select the language you wish to talk in and start laying words down. During our tests, it was noticed that if the wrong language is selected, the extension will try to make up words corresponding to the selected language. Also, taking too fast might affect the text composition. Talk & Write is not perfect when it comes to registering words, but with a bit of practice you can figure out the correct tempo.

Depending on the used language, the extension is capable of adding diacritics to the text. For cleaning the boards, one must deactivate the microphone and click on the icon with a brush next to a notepad. The other button is for copying the contents to the clipboard, allowing you to paste your text to whatever text document you wish.

To conclude, Talk & Write has the potential to be a dependable voice-to-text service, but it still requires a bit of work to make it more reliable. The main issue is how the voice is capture if one talks relatively fast. Other than that, the extension works as intended, providing the user with what’s advertised.