Session Mode
Use Session mode for continuous dictation that turns each finished thought into text.
Last updated May 17, 2026
Session mode is for the times when you want Confer to stay with you while you work. It keeps listening, detects when a thought is finished, processes that spoken segment, and pastes the result back into the app you are using.
Use it for chat tools, agent prompts, email replies, notes, and any workflow where you want to speak in several passes without starting a new recording each time.
Start Session mode
Press Option + D to start Session mode. Confer shows a compact recording panel with the current state, such as Listening, Speaking, Processing, or Paused.
Press Option + D again when you are done. You can also press Escape or use the close control beside the recording panel to end the session.
How it works
Confer listens for speech and finalizes a segment after about 2.5 seconds of silence. Each segment is transcribed, processed with the selected prompt when one is active, saved to your local history when history is enabled, and pasted into the current target app.
The session stays active after each segment, so you can keep speaking in a natural rhythm. Confer also returns focus to the target app before pasting, which helps when you move between Confer controls and the app where the text belongs.
Pause and resume
Use the pause control when you need a break but do not want to end the session. While paused, Confer stops listening and clears the current audio buffer.
Use the same control to resume. Confer starts listening again and waits for your next spoken segment.
Prompts and app defaults
Session mode uses the same prompt picker as Anchor Mode. If you set an Anchor Mode default for an app, Session mode can use that same default while you are working in that app.
When you move into another configured app during a session, Confer can update the selected prompt to match that app. This is useful when Mail needs an email prompt, an editor needs Markdown, and an agent tool needs a task prompt.
Send each result
In Settings, you can enable Press Return after session dictation. When this is on, Confer pastes each finished segment and then presses Return for you.
This is useful in chat based tools where each completed thought should be sent right away. Leave it off when you want to review or keep editing before you send.