Baro vs Windows voice typing (Win+H): an alternative that works on Mac too

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Where you speak

Voice typing listens through your PC's default microphone, and Microsoft lists a working microphone as a requirement. A built-in laptop microphone picks up the room too, and desktop PCs often have no microphone.

Baro listens through your phone. You hold a button on the phone and speak into it, and the words appear on your computer, with nothing to plug in.

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Speed

Microsoft publishes no speed figures for voice typing, so here is only what we have measured for Baro. We timed Baro's speech recognition ourselves on November 10 and 11, 2026, on a Mac, with computer-generated test voices. A word was ready to show about 0.5 seconds after it was spoken, and ready to type about 1.3 seconds later in English and 1.4 seconds in Korean (medians). That leaves out the network hops between phone, server and computer (tens of milliseconds each) and the typing itself. Across 26 real dictations, the microphone started about 0.4 seconds after the button was pressed.

We have not timed Baro and voice typing side by side on the same PC, so we don't claim either one is faster.

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How the text gets into your app

Voice typing writes into the text box where your cursor is, and needs the cursor in a text box to work. Baro also types at the cursor while you talk. When there is no text box, the words go to a small card you can copy from, and if the final version changes words already typed, the card lets you fix them.

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Punctuation and editing

Voice typing has an automatic punctuation setting you can turn on, and voice commands such as "delete that", "select that" and "press Enter", with a command table for each supported language. On Copilot+ PCs, fluid dictation also tidies English text on the device.

Baro adds punctuation and formats numbers; you edit with your keyboard as usual. If you like editing by voice, voice typing is ahead.

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Languages

Voice typing supports many languages in Windows 11, Korean among them. Baro offers English, Korean, Chinese, and Auto, which follows you between Korean and English in one dictation.

We have not compared accuracy in any language.

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Privacy

Voice typing mainly uses Microsoft's online speech recognition (Azure Speech services); Microsoft's privacy statement says it may also recognize speech on the device. Microsoft says it will not store, sample or listen to your recordings without your permission, and contributing voice clips to improve voice typing is optional.

Baro passes your audio to its speech provider to be turned into text, and Baro does not save it. Our logs keep connection details and timings, never what you said, and the provider's model-improvement program is turned off.

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Setup and devices

Voice typing needs nothing installed: it is part of Windows 10 and 11, and works only on Windows. Baro needs two apps, the desktop app on Windows or Mac and the phone app on iPhone or Android, paired once by scanning a code.

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Price and availability

Voice typing ships with Windows 10 and 11 at no extra cost. Baro is in early access and its price is not set yet; people who sign up hear first.