Docs / Saying a desktop name
Saying a desktop name
Hold Option and Space, say the name of a desktop, and DeskSay switches to it. There is no wake word, nothing is sent anywhere, and the whole thing takes one gesture.
The gesture
Press Option and Space. Say the name. It switches.
That is the whole of it. You do not have to say "Hey DeskSay" or any other wake word first, because the key press is what starts the listening. DeskSay is not listening at any other time.
The name you say is the name you gave the desktop on the Board or in Settings. If you have not named anything yet, name one desktop first and then try the key.
You should seeA small HUD saying Listening…, then the name it heard, and then you are on that desktop.
What you can say
Names are the main thing, but DeskSay also understands a handful of words for moving around without naming a destination.
"Desktop 3" means the third tile in your own order on the Board, not the third desktop in Mission Control's numbering.
What you see
A small HUD appears while DeskSay is listening, and it tells you where it got to.
First it says Listening…. When it has heard something, it shows the name it heard, and switches.
If two desktops are a close match for what you said, it does not guess. It shows "Which one?" with up to three choices, numbered. Pick the one you meant by its number.
The other messages you may see:
- Didn't catch that, when nothing was recognised.
- Already on X, when you asked for the desktop you are already looking at.
- Cancelled, when you stopped it.
Escape cancels at any point, including while the choices are on screen.
Privacy
Recognition is the on-device engine built into macOS. Nothing you say is uploaded, and nothing you say is stored. You can switch the network off entirely and voice still works.
Language
The language DeskSay recognises is a picker in Settings, Voice. Set it to the language you will actually say the names in. If your desktop names are in one language and the picker is set to another, the words will not match well.
Permissions
Voice needs two permissions from macOS: Microphone and Speech Recognition. DeskSay asks for both the first time you use voice, not at install, and it asks for nothing else on its account.
You can decline them. If you do, every other way of switching still works: the Board, keys, per-desktop shortcuts, the menu bar and the notch strip are all untouched. See the other ways to switch.
If it does not work
If it does not workCheck that Microphone and Speech Recognition are granted. Without both, DeskSay cannot hear you. They are asked for the first time you use voice, so if you dismissed that prompt, grant them in System Settings, Privacy & Security.
If it does not workCheck the language in Settings, Voice. Recognition in the wrong language will mishear names that are perfectly clear to you.
If it does not workCheck that the name is not a reserved word. next, previous, back, left, right, desktop, space, bare digits and bare ordinals are refused as names, because voice needs them to mean what they mean. Naming covers the full list.
If it does not workCheck for two desktops with similar names. Similar names are what produces the "Which one?" prompt. Give one of them an alias that sounds nothing like the other, and say that instead.
Voice and your licence
Voice is part of the free 14-day trial, with everything else. After the trial, saying a desktop name needs a subscription: press the keys without one and DeskSay says so instead of listening. The same is true of dragging a window to another desktop, clicking a desktop in the notch strip and running automations. Everything else carries on, with 30 switches a calendar month, and nothing is deleted: your names, aliases, notes and automations stay. See the licence page for what the trial includes and what happens after it.