Dictation for email: spoken draft to clean message

Dictation for email works by speaking a rough draft, then letting Parlo's Email transform turn it into a greeting, body, and closing. You edit the note by hand or tap Email again if the shape is off. An optional "Sign emails as" setting adds your closing name. Transcription and the transform both run on your device.

By Eric Friedman. Last updated 2026-09-08.

How do you dictate an email with Parlo?

You dictate the same way you would for any note: tap the mic, speak, and let the app transcribe and clean up the text. For an email, you say the content in whatever order you think of it, then apply the Email transform afterward instead of trying to speak in a perfect greeting-body-closing shape from the start.

1. Dictate the note, including who it is for and what you want to say.
2. Open the note and tap the Email transform.
3. Review the greeting, body, and closing Parlo assembled.
4. Edit anything by hand, or tap Email again if the shape is off.
5. Copy or send the result from your mail app.

What does cleanup handle before the Email transform runs?

Cleanup runs on-device with an on-device language model. It removes filler sounds, false starts, and repeated words before any transform sees the text. Spoken formatting commands work too. Say "new line" or "new paragraph" to break up your draft, or "parentheses" and "end parentheses" around an aside. Those three commands apply deterministically, so they work even when the language model is unavailable. "Quote" and "end quote" work as well, but only when the language model runs: turn "Use AI cleanup" on if you want to mark a quoted line this way.

What does the Email transform add on top of cleanup?

The greeting, body, and closing are assembled in code rather than left entirely to the language model to invent, which is why the shape stays consistent from one dictated email to the next. A separate formatting pass runs after the model, fixing details such as numbered lists and dollar ranges without changing the words you dictated.

Does the Email transform ever repeat itself?

It can, since a language model sometimes writes a greeting or sign-off twice across the body and the closing. Parlo's Email transform checks for that and removes the duplicate line before showing you the result, so you are not left cleaning up an obvious repeat yourself.

What if the transform gets the tone or shape wrong?

Edit the note by hand, the same way you would edit any dictated note. A saved edit keeps your original dictated words for one-level revert, so trying a transform and deciding you preferred the plain dictation is not a one-way decision. You can also tap a different transform, such as Shorter or Fix, if Email was not the right shape for what you dictated.

What if you want to add more to an email after dictating it?

On iOS you can dictate again to append to an existing note, rather than starting a second note and copying text between them. This works for an email draft the same as any other note: dictate the first pass, apply the Email transform, then append a closing thought or a detail you forgot before you send it.

What does a typical dictated email look like before and after?

You might dictate something like: "email to Maria about the invoice, tell her the number is wrong, ask her to resend it, thanks." Cleanup removes the filler and false starts around that. The Email transform turns it into a greeting addressed to Maria, a body describing the invoice number issue and the request to resend it, and a closing. If you have "Sign emails as" set, your name is added to the closing automatically, so you are not saying your own name out loud every time. What you get back reads like a short, plain email, not a paragraph of dictated speech with the punctuation guessed at.

Should you use spoken formatting commands while dictating an email?

Yes, if the email needs more than one paragraph or a quoted line. Say "new paragraph" between ideas instead of running them together. That command is deterministic, so the paragraph breaks land whether or not cleanup's language model step runs. "Quote" and "end quote" around something you are repeating exactly, such as a sentence from an earlier message, need the language model, so use them only with AI cleanup on.

Does this replace proofreading the email yourself?

No. Cleanup and the Email transform both reduce the editing you need to do, not remove it. Review the greeting, body, and closing before you send, the same as you would with any drafted email, dictated or typed. The length guard that rejects implausible cleanup output is a safety net against one kind of error, not a substitute for reading what you are about to send.

Does this work the same way on Mac?

Yes, with one default difference. The same transform runs from the Mac Notes window. "Use AI cleanup" ships on by default on iPhone and off by default on Mac, so turn it on in Mac Settings if you want the language model's cleanup pass before you apply Email. Off, Mac still strips filler sounds and applies the deterministic spoken commands. "Sign emails as" is a setting on both platforms, so your closing name stays consistent whichever device you dictated from.

Is any of this sent off your device?

No new step is added. Transcription uses Apple's on-device speech engine, cleanup runs with an on-device language model, and the Email transform runs on your device. If history sync is on, the finished note syncs through your private iCloud, end-to-end encrypted, the same as any other dictated note, and you can turn that off in Settings.