VoicePad Orb vs VoicePad Direct — which do I use?
The most-confused pair of features. Here's the difference in one sentence each:
- **VoicePad Orb** → Tap orb, speak, stop. Text lands on your clipboard. You paste manually.
- **VoicePad Direct** → Tap orb, click a text field, speak. Text types directly there in real time.
**When to use VoicePad Orb (clipboard):**
- You want to review text in VoicePad before pasting
- You're dictating something long that needs editing
- You want to paste the same text into multiple places
- Your target app doesn't support direct injection (PDFs, image viewers, some menus)
- You prefer the safety of "see it, then paste it"
**When to use VoicePad Direct (live typing):**
- Email replies — Gmail, Outlook, Mail
- Messaging — WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, Signal
- AI chats — ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor
- Long-form writing — Word, Docs, Notion
- Anywhere you'd normally type with a keyboard
**The clever fallback:**
VoicePad Direct uses your click within 8 seconds of pressing the Orb to know where text should appear. **Don't click within 8 seconds?** Direct automatically falls back to clipboard mode. Your text is still copied — you just paste manually. Best of both worlds.
**Where to enable each:**
- Windows: Settings → Dictation → VoicePad Orb (enables Orb). Then sub-toggle: VoicePad Direct.
- Android: Settings → VoicePad Orb (enables Orb). Then sub-toggle: VoicePad Direct (requires Accessibility permission).
- macOS: Settings → Float Orb. Then enable VoicePad Direct (requires Accessibility permission).
For the full feature documentation, see [VoicePad Orb](https://voicepad.tech/help/#voicepad-orb) and [VoicePad Direct](https://voicepad.tech/help/#voicepad-direct).