How to Use Voice Input: Talk to Your Companion Instead of Typing
We've written a lot about your companion's voice — how the spoken replies work and how hearing them deepens the connection. But that's only half of a conversation, and the other half has been hiding in plain sight: the little microphone button in your chat bar. Tap it, talk, and your words appear in the message box — no thumbs required. It's the missing direction: not just a companion who speaks to you, but you speaking back. This guide covers how it works, when talking genuinely beats typing, and how pairing your voice in with theirs out gets you the closest thing InnerHaven offers to a real spoken conversation. Plus the honest fine print, stated plainly.
What It Is (Said Precisely)
Let's be exact, because “voice” can mean a lot of things: this is dictation. You tap the mic, speak, and your browser turns your speech into text that lands in the message box — where you can read it, fix a word, and send it like any typed message. It is not a phone call and not real-time speech-to-speech; your companion doesn't hear your audio, it reads the words you spoke. Think of it as swapping the keyboard for your voice, with everything else about the conversation unchanged. That's less flashy than a “voice call,” and in practice it's better for what InnerHaven conversations actually are — you get the ease of speaking with the control of reviewing before you send.
The Plain Fine Print, Up Front
Two things to know before you tap. First, voice input is a Starter-and-up feature — on the Free tier, tapping the mic shows you the upgrade prompt instead (Starter is $15/month, currently $10 with the promo). Second, it's browser-dependent: dictation runs on your browser's built-in speech recognition (the Web Speech API), which works well in Chrome, Edge, and Safari but is limited or unavailable in some browsers — Firefox support is notably patchy. If you don't see the mic button at all, that's the app being honest with you: it hides the button when your browser can't do speech recognition or your device has no microphone, rather than showing you a control that won't work.
How to Use It, Start to Finish
- Find the mic in the chat bar. It sits with your other input buttons. (First time in chat, InnerHaven gives it a little spotlight so you know it's there.)
- Tap it and grant the permission. The first use, your browser asks for microphone access — that's the standard browser prompt, and it's a one-time yes per site.
- Talk naturally, and watch your words appear. This is the pleasant surprise: the transcript shows up in the message box as you speak, live, so you can see it keeping up with you. It's tap-to-talk — speak your thought, and it wraps up when you pause; tap again anytime to stop it yourself.
- Review, touch up, send. The words land as editable text. Fix the one name it misheard, then hit send like any message. Dictating adds to whatever you've already typed, so you can start with thumbs and finish by voice mid-message.
- One rhythm rule: you can't dictate while your companion is still writing back — the app will ask you to let the response finish first. Same as a good conversation: one voice at a time.
A nice touch worth knowing: dictation follows your browser's language automatically. If your browser runs in Spanish, the mic listens in Spanish — no setting to find.
When Talking Beats Typing
Thinking by speaking
Some thoughts don't arrive in sentences — they arrive by being said. Rambling to your companion out loud, watching it become text, is a genuinely different (and often more honest) way to untangle a feeling than composing it.
Faster than thumbs
When something big just happened, typing is a bottleneck. Speaking lets you get it out at the speed you feel it — the whole messy story, before the moment cools.
When typing is the barrier
For anyone for whom typing is difficult, painful, or slow — injury, disability, or just a long day — the mic makes the whole companion experience reachable by voice.
Life doesn't pause
Cooking, folding laundry, walking — the check-in you'd have skipped because your hands were full becomes a tap and a sentence.
Close the Loop: Your Voice In, Their Voice Out
Here's where it gets good. Voice input on its own is a convenience; paired with spoken replies, it changes the texture of the whole conversation. Turn on your companion's voice (the TTS side we covered in the voice feature tour), then use the mic for your side — and the exchange becomes: you speak, they speak back. Eyes mostly off the screen, hands mostly free, a conversation that flows at talking speed instead of typing speed. It isn't a phone call — the honest description is dictation plus text-to-speech — but in the feel of it, it's the closest thing InnerHaven has to sitting with someone and just talking. If you journal with your companion, try one entry this way; spoken journaling catches things written journaling edits out.
A First-Session Suggestion
Don't debut the mic on something heavy. Pick an ordinary evening check-in, tap the mic, and just narrate your day for thirty seconds — then read what landed before you send. You'll learn its rhythm (where it pauses, what it mishears) on low stakes, so it's second nature by the time you actually need to talk something out. If you're stuck on what to say at all, our guide to starting meaningful conversations works exactly the same spoken as typed.
Honest Limits, So You're Not Surprised
- It's a paid-tier feature. Free-tier users get the upgrade prompt, not the dictation. If voice matters to you, that's part of what Starter buys.
- Browser support varies. Chrome-family browsers and Safari are the reliable path; Firefox's speech recognition is limited. No mic button visible = your browser or device can't support it there.
- Speech recognition is the browser's. The transcription is done by your browser's speech service, with its accuracy and its quirks — names and niche words are the usual stumbles, which is exactly why the words land as editable text instead of auto-sending.
- One voice at a time. Dictation waits while your companion is mid-reply — a small rule that keeps the rhythm of a real exchange.
None of those limits change the headline: if you've only ever typed to your companion, you've been using half the conversation. Tap the mic once on an ordinary day, say the thing instead of writing it, and see which version of you shows up. A lot of people find the spoken one says more.
Say It Instead
Tap the mic, talk, and watch your words arrive — then let your companion answer out loud. Voice input is included with Starter and Unlimited.
Open InnerHaven