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Push-to-Talk: Ask Pluely by Voice

Pluely v1's push-to-talk lets you ask a question out loud instead of typing it into the composer. Hold a shortcut, speak your question, and Pluely turns your voice into text and sends it through Ask mode — no keyboard required.

What it does

Push-to-talk is a dictation shortcut for Ask mode. Instead of clicking into the composer at the bottom of the overlay and typing, you trigger the shortcut, speak your question naturally, and release it — Pluely transcribes what you said and treats it exactly like a typed question, including all the same context from any attachments already in the conversation.

How it works

  1. Make sure you're in Ask mode at the top of the overlay (push-to-talk targets the Ask composer).
  2. Press and hold the push-to-talk shortcut.
  3. Speak your question clearly.
  4. Release the shortcut. Pluely converts your speech to text, drops it into the composer, and sends it just like a typed question would be sent.
  5. The answer streams in below, exactly as it would for any other Ask mode question.

You can customize the exact key combination for push-to-talk from Pluely's settings — see Keyboard Shortcuts for the full list of customizable shortcuts across the app.

Why it's disabled during Listen mode

Push-to-talk is intentionally disabled while a Listen session is active. Listen mode is already using your microphone continuously to transcribe both your voice and the other side of a call in real time — allowing push-to-talk to also grab the microphone at the same time would conflict with that capture. If you want to ask Pluely something by voice while Listen mode is running, use the transcript itself: Pluely can already see what you've said as part of the live conversation, so a quick action or typed instruction referencing the recent conversation works instead.

Push-to-talk and attachments

Push-to-talk only replaces how you produce the text of your question — everything else about Ask mode still applies. If you've already attached a screenshot, an image, or a document to the current conversation, a question dictated through push-to-talk uses that same context, exactly as a typed question would. This makes push-to-talk a natural pairing with auto-screenshot: capture the screen first, then hold the shortcut and simply say what you want to know about it, without touching the keyboard at all.

Friendly errors, not technical ones

If Pluely can't understand what was said, or a dictation attempt fails outright, you'll see a short, friendly, Pluely-branded message rather than a raw technical error — the kind of thing that tells you to simply try again, not a confusing stack trace. This keeps push-to-talk approachable even when a single dictation attempt doesn't go as expected.

When to use it

Push-to-talk is especially useful when:

  • Your hands are busy or away from the keyboard.
  • You want to ask a quick question without breaking focus on another window.
  • You're more comfortable phrasing something out loud than typing it precisely.

Tips

  • Speak at a normal pace and volume — rushing or mumbling can reduce transcription accuracy.
  • If you're about to start a Listen session, ask any pending questions via push-to-talk first, since the shortcut becomes unavailable once listening begins.
  • Customize the shortcut to something that doesn't collide with other apps you use frequently — see Keyboard Shortcuts for how.
  • If push-to-talk doesn't respond, confirm Pluely still has microphone permission — the same permission real-time transcription relies on.

Last updated 2026-07-10 · pluely.com