The mic button lets you dictate notes and chat messages instead of typing.
What it does
Wherever you see a mic button (in notes and in the chat input), you can press it and speak. Your browser transcribes your voice to text in real time and types it into the field for you. When you're done, the text saves just like anything else you type.
How to use it
Click the mic button in a note or the chat input.
Allow microphone access when your browser asks. You only need to do this once per browser.
Start speaking. Your words appear in the field as you talk.
Click the mic button again to stop. Edit the text like normal before saving or sending.
Supported browsers
The mic button works in:
Chrome (desktop and mobile)
Safari (desktop and mobile)
Edge (desktop and mobile)
Other Chromium-based browsers like Brave and Opera
It does not work in Firefox. If you use Firefox, the mic button will not appear or respond.
If you're on a supported browser and the mic button still doesn't appear, check that you're using an up-to-date version.
How your voice is handled
Tern never receives or stores your voice audio. Your browser handles the speech-to-text directly:
Safari: Your voice is processed on your device using Apple's on-device speech recognition.
Chrome: Your voice is sent to Google's speech service, transcribed, and the text is returned to your browser.
Edge: Your voice is sent to Microsoft's speech service, transcribed, and the text is returned to your browser.
Only the transcribed text reaches Tern, and it's saved the same way as text you type.
Common issues
The mic button doesn't appear. You're likely on an unsupported browser. Switch to Chrome, Safari, or Edge.
The mic button appears but does nothing when I click it. Your browser may not have microphone permission. Check your browser's site settings for app.tern.travel and allow microphone access.
My words aren't being transcribed. Check that your microphone is connected and not muted at the system level. On a laptop, make sure you haven't covered the built-in mic. Then refresh the page and try again.
The transcription is inaccurate. Speak in a quiet space and at a normal pace. Punctuation and capitalization are added automatically by your browser's speech service, so they may not always match how you'd type it.
It worked yesterday but doesn't today. On Edge, there is a monthly usage limit (around 90 minutes of speech per browser, per user). If you've been a heavy user, wait until the next month or switch to Chrome or Safari.