# App-aware formatting

> How Walkie formats dictated text differently depending on which application you are dictating into.

In Cloud Mode, Walkie looks at which application has focus and formats the transcript to suit it. Dictating into a terminal produces a command without a trailing full stop; dictating into an email produces sentences and paragraphs; dictating into a chat app produces a short informal message. It is on by default and needs no configuration.

*Category: Dictation · Last updated: 2026-09-01*

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## What changes per app

| Where you dictate | What you get |
| --- | --- |
| **Terminal** | A bare command. No sentence casing, no trailing punctuation. |
| **Code editor** | Comment- and identifier-aware text, without prose punctuation forced on it. |
| **Email** | Full sentences, paragraph breaks, and proper capitalisation. |
| **Chat — Slack, Messages, Discord** | Short, informal, usually a single line with no trailing full stop. |
| **Documents and notes** | Long-form prose with paragraphs preserved. |

> **Note:** App-aware formatting is a Cloud Mode feature. On-Device Mode returns the same raw transcript regardless of where you are dictating, because the formatting step is what needs the cloud.

## Seeing and overriding the detected app

The recording overlay shows a small pill naming the app Walkie thinks you are dictating into. If the detection is wrong — which happens with embedded terminals and apps that host other apps — you can change it there, and Walkie will format for the app you picked instead.

> **Tip:** If you dictate into an editor with an embedded terminal, the pill is worth a glance. An editor's terminal pane often reports as the editor, which produces prose punctuation in a shell command.

## Turning it off

App-aware formatting is switched off in **Settings → Transcription**. With it off, Cloud Mode still cleans up filler words and grammar, but formats everything as general prose.

## Frequently asked questions about app-aware formatting

### Does Walkie send the contents of my screen to detect the app?

No. It reads the frontmost application's identity — its name and bundle identifier — not its contents. On-Device Mode sends nothing at all.

### Why did my terminal command come out with a full stop?

The app detection did not identify the pane as a terminal. Check the app pill on the recording overlay and set it manually, or switch app-aware formatting off for that session.

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Source: https://trywalkie.com/en/docs/dictation/app-aware-formatting
Walkie help center: https://trywalkie.com/en/docs