Enable the floating mic

The floating mic is the default way to dictate with betterflo: a small bubble that sits on top of whatever app you’re using, so you can tap, speak, and have your words typed into the field you’re focused on — without switching keyboards. It needs two system permissions, requested one at a time, with a plain explanation before each. This page walks through both, then explains the bubble itself.

Prefer not to grant an accessibility permission at all? The betterflo keyboard needs none — and it’s a full keyboard: a key grid with a suggestion strip, dictation on the mic key beside the space bar, and Fix, Tone, Rewrite and Translate in a bar above the keys, all running on your phone. See that page instead. Either way, dictation runs on-device, per the privacy policy.

Why two permissions?

The bubble needs to draw on top of other apps to appear at all, and it needs a way to put your dictated text into the field you’re using. Android keeps those separate, and so do we — you’ll grant the first, see what the second is for, then grant the second. Never both at once.

Step 1 — Let the bubble draw on top

In the Hub, tap Turn on next to “Display over other apps.” This opens Android’s settings screen for that permission (Settings.canDrawOverlays).

1. Find betterflo in the list.
2. Toggle it ON.
3. Return to betterflo — the Hub re-checks automatically.

Once this is granted, the bubble can appear — but it can’t type for you yet. That’s the next step.

Step 2 — What betterflo can see, then let it type for you

Before betterflo ever asks Android for the second permission, you’ll see an in-app disclosure — What betterflo can see — explaining exactly what it is about to ask for. You can read it and leave without granting anything.

The permission itself is an Android Accessibility Service. Here’s the honest, specific version of what it does:

• What it accesses — the text field you’re actively dictating into: its contents, and where your cursor is. Nothing else on the screen, and nothing while you aren’t dictating.
• Why — so your spoken words can be inserted into that field, in the right place, without betterflo needing to be your active keyboard.
• What happens to it — it’s used to place your text, then discarded. Not stored, not logged, not sent anywhere.
• What doesn’t change — speech and cleanup still run on your phone. The distinction that matters: this permission changes what betterflo can read on your device, while you’re dictating — it does not change what’s transmitted, which stays on-device by default either way.

We’re not going to tell you this permission is harmless — reading the field you’re dictating into is a real capability, and we’d rather you know that plainly than have it undersold. It also never acts on a password or otherwise secure field; the bubble hides itself there instead.

If you’re ready, tap Continue on the disclosure screen. This opens Android’s accessibility settings.

1. Find betterflo Dictation Insert in the list of services.
2. Toggle it ON, and confirm Android’s system dialog.
3. Return to betterflo — the Hub re-checks and confirms the bubble is ready.

If you leave the disclosure or the settings screen without granting, nothing breaks and nothing re-prompts you in the same session — you can turn it on later from Settings, or use the keyboard instead.

Discard, waveform, commit

The bubble itself was redesigned around three controls, laid out together while you’re actively dictating:

• Discard — throws the current utterance away. Nothing is inserted, and nothing about what you just said is kept anywhere.
• Waveform — a live view confirming the mic is hearing you, in the middle.
• Commit — finishes the dictation and inserts the cleaned text into your field, the same as tapping the bubble again used to do.

The real change here is discard. Before, a misheard sentence only got fixed after it had already landed in whatever you were typing into — you’d have to notice it, select it, and delete it by hand, in the app you were dictating into. Now you can throw a bad take away before it ever reaches the field: if you hear the bubble getting it wrong mid-sentence, or the waveform confirms it heard something you didn’t say, discard and try again with nothing to clean up afterward.

Appearance settings

The bubble’s look and behaviour are configurable from its own settings screen (reachable from the Hub): position (left, right, or bottom of the screen), size, opacity, snap-to-edge, whether it follows the text field you’re typing into, haptics, and whether it hides itself in secure fields or while your keyboard is up. Five named colors are available for the bubble’s idle, parked state.

Note

The colour picker only changes how the bubble looks when it’s idle — parked, waiting for you to tap it. While you’re actively dictating, its controls use fixed colors (red while listening, green once your words have landed) so you can always tell the state apart at a glance, regardless of which colour you picked. No appearance setting changes that.

You’re done

With both permissions granted, tap the bubble in any app and start dictating — chat, email, a search box, anywhere you can type. If the bubble doesn’t appear, doesn’t insert text, or you’d like to fine-tune its position, see Troubleshooting.

The mic is separate

The floating mic still needs the microphone permission to hear you — that’s requested separately, and it’s the same RECORD_AUDIO permission any dictation app needs. See the privacy policy for exactly what it’s used for.