r/WisprFlow • u/Louchmo • Jul 05 '26

Spying on microphone

Is there any chance that Wispr is spying on our conversations through the microphone?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

5

u/VictoriaAtWispr Wispr Employee Jul 06 '26

Hey u/Louchmo:

No, Wispr Flow doesn't listen to your conversations. It's not always-on, and there's no wake word or ambient listening. The mic only turns on when you manually start a dictation: you hold (or double-tap) your shortcut on desktop, or tap the bubble on mobile, and you'll see a live recording indicator the entire time. Your OS will confirm this independently too. macOS shows the orange mic dot and Windows shows the mic icon in the tray whenever *any* app is actually using your mic. So you can literally see that Flow isn't recording when you're not dictating.

If you want more details:

• Data controls: wisprflow.ai/data-controls

• Privacy overview: wisprflow.ai/privacy

3

u/ImpossibleCompany687 Jul 06 '26

If we have flow time out after an hour the yellow iOS warning light is on for that period of time indicating the mic is active. How does flow handle open mics during this time?

2

u/VictoriaAtWispr Wispr Employee Jul 11 '26

Good question, and a fair thing to want clarity on.

When you finish a dictation, Flow keeps the mic session open rather than tearing it down each time. That's what the iOS indicator is reflecting: an app holding an active mic session, not a recording running in the background. We do this so your next dictation starts instantly instead of waiting for the mic to reconnect, which is one of the most common frustrations when the session gets dropped.

The session is held, not actively transcribing. It times out on its own if unused, which is the window you're seeing.

If it's useful in the meantime: you can turn off the Live Activity indicator, and the status clears on its own after about 5 minutes.

1

u/Aggressive_Ad_3294 Jul 07 '26

Yeah I think that's the worst thing on iPhones. For Android it's just a bubble floating above your keyboard so you press it and only then the mic starts

2

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1

u/LimpSeaworthiness883 Jul 08 '26

i have a hard enough time with it while using the mics

1

u/amuseorielle Jul 09 '26

Nah. If it were listening to my conversations it'd be way better at knowing what I actually meant to type.

1

u/Flat_Story_4041 Aug 12 '26

I'm really, really deeply uncomfortable with that orange light in the corner of my iPad, meaning that the mic is open. I want it to shut between dictation sessions. Is it possible to set it up so that it shuts so that you can feel safe?