Frequently Asked Questions

FICTATE™ is a dictation app built specifically for fiction writers. You speak your story; FICTATE™ transcribes it and keeps your work organized in your Recordings — ready to paste into your manuscript.

FICTATE™ is available as an iOS/Android mobile app and as a web app you can use in any desktop browser. Your account, recordings, dictionary, and settings sync automatically between all your devices.

Chrome and Edge are the recommended browsers, and Safari works well too. Some privacy-focused browsers (Arc, for example) can silently block microphone access — if the recording meter doesn't move while you speak, or playback is silent, switch to Chrome or Edge.

An internet connection is required for transcription. Your recording is saved on your device if you lose connection, so you can transcribe it once you're back online.

Yes — check your microphone before you begin dictating. Phones don't always switch to a plugged-in or Bluetooth mic automatically, and if the phone quietly records from its built-in mic (say, from your pocket), your transcription quality will suffer badly. iPhone: go to Account → Microphone and select your mic from the list. FICTATE™ remembers your choice for every future session until you change it — set it once and you're done. If you unplug that mic, FICTATE™ falls back to Automatic for that session. Android: your phone routes to the most recently connected mic automatically. Make sure it's connected before you start recording, and do a quick test recording to confirm it sounds close and clear. A 10-second test recording at the start of a session is the best insurance for a long dictation walk.

Tap the microphone button on the home screen. Tap the stop button (square) when you're done and FICTATE™ will take you straight to the transcription screen.

Yes. While recording, tap Pause. Tap Resume to continue. The timer stops while paused.

Recording itself has no limit — FICTATE™ will happily record for hours. Transcription is different: a single recording longer than about 50 minutes is too large to transcribe in one piece. Your audio is always saved either way, but the transcription of a too-long file will fail. Best practice: dictate in 15–20 minute chunks. Stop & save, then immediately start a new recording — it takes two taps and your flow barely pauses. FICTATE™ shows a gentle reminder at 15 minutes and a firmer warning at 40.

On the mobile app, FICTATE™ keeps recording in the background even when the screen is off — designed for long dictation sessions. On Android you'll see a small "Fictate™ is recording" notification while you record. That notification is what keeps the microphone alive with the screen off — it disappears the moment you stop. The web version can't record in the background, so while you're recording FICTATE™ keeps your screen awake automatically. Keep the browser tab in front while dictating — switching tabs or minimizing can silence the microphone.

On mobile, FICTATE™ auto-saves a snapshot of your in-progress recording every 30 seconds to your device storage. On web, snapshots are saved to your browser's local storage every 30 seconds. If the tab closes unexpectedly, the next time you tap the microphone you'll be offered the option to recover the draft.

A phone call takes over your phone's microphone, so recording can't continue through it. When a call comes in, FICTATE™ stops the recording and saves everything captured up to that point. After the call, just start a new recording to keep going. To avoid interruptions during a long session, turn on Do Not Disturb first (see below).

Do Not Disturb silences calls and notifications so they don't interrupt your dictation. iPhone — ON: open Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner, or up from the bottom edge on older iPhones), tap Focus, then tap Do Not Disturb. OFF: open Control Center again and tap Do Not Disturb so it's no longer highlighted. You can also manage it in Settings → Focus → Do Not Disturb. Android — ON: swipe down from the top to open Quick Settings (swipe down a second time to see all the tiles), then tap the Do Not Disturb tile. OFF: tap that tile again. You can also find it in Settings → Notifications → Do Not Disturb (the exact path varies a little by phone maker).

Granola monitors the system microphone at the OS level and can't distinguish a call from a dictation session. The cleanest fix is to add your browser to Granola's ignored apps list: 1. Open Granola → Settings 2. Find Ignored Apps or Exclusions 3. Add your browser (Chrome, Safari, Arc, etc.) You can also pause Granola temporarily from its menu bar icon.

FICTATE™ supports 99+ languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Finnish, Japanese, and many more. Set your language in Settings → Language.

When Auto-Punctuate is on, FICTATE™ infers punctuation automatically from your speech patterns — recommended for most non-English languages. When it's off, you speak punctuation cues aloud ("period," "comma," "new paragraph") and FICTATE™ converts them to the correct symbols.

Auto-Punctuate applies grammar-appropriate punctuation for the detected language. Quality is best for widely spoken languages. Verbal punctuation commands (spoken cues) are currently English-only.

FICTATE™ keeps a transcription going for a short window even if you switch away, so brief interruptions are fine. For a long recording, it's safest to stay on the screen until the transcript appears — your phone limits how long an app can keep working in the background. (Recording itself runs in the background without any limit; this only applies to transcribing.)

The Cleanup Tool (Fictator tier) runs your transcript through an AI to correct punctuation, capitalization, smart quotes, and obvious transcription errors — without changing your words or adding new content. You can customize its behavior with personal style instructions in Settings → Cleanup Style.

Your manuscript lives in your writing software — Scrivener, Word, Google Docs — not in FICTATE™. Each recording is a chunk of dictation: transcribe it, Copy or Email the text, and paste it into your manuscript where the story continues. Then start your next recording and keep going. Think of FICTATE™ as your dictation studio, not your filing cabinet. Once a chunk is safely in your manuscript, you can delete the recording here — your story's home is your manuscript.

Tap Copy on the transcript, open your Scrivener project, tap where the story continues, and paste — your italics come through intact. This is the fastest, most reliable path on a phone. On iPhone, Fictate Anywhere goes a step further: dictate right inside Scrivener itself, with no copying or pasting at all. Set it up from Account → Fictate Anywhere Keyboard. On a computer, downloading the transcript as a file (Download button) opens directly in Scrivener, Word, or Pages.

If FICTATE™ consistently mishears a word — a character name, a made-up place, an unusual proper noun — add it to your dictionary. FICTATE™ uses your dictionary to bias transcription toward your preferred spellings.

Yes. You can add words in any language and the dictionary will bias FICTATE™'s recognition regardless of the language you're dictating in.

Deleted recordings are moved to a trash area and kept for 7 days, after which they are permanently removed. To restore one within that window, open the menu (the icon at the top-left of the home screen), tap Deleted Recordings, and tap Restore.

Yes. Open any recording from your Recordings and tap the transcript to edit it directly. Changes are saved automatically.

Your transcripts, recordings, dictionary, outlines, and settings are stored securely in your FICTATE™ account (in the cloud) and sync automatically across every device where you're signed in. Your audio recordings sync too: they're encrypted in transit and backed up to your private cloud storage, so they're available on any device where you're signed in. Audio is kept for a period that depends on your plan; your transcript text — the part you need for your manuscript — is kept and available everywhere.

Your transcripts and metadata sync automatically — open the Recordings screen to trigger the initial sync. Your audio recordings sync too and will download to a new device the first time you open them, as long as they're still within your plan's audio-retention window. All of your transcript text is always available.

It's a browser app — no download required. Open it in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge on any desktop or laptop.

Browsers pause JavaScript and audio when a tab is hidden. Keep the FICTATE™ tab in the foreground while dictating. For long sessions, the mobile app records in the background and is a better fit.