Keyboard Shortcuts
Echo displays the active recording shortcut in the popup. Treat the values shown in Settings → App → General → Keyboard Shortcuts as authoritative if they differ from the defaults below.
Recording shortcut
The Recording Hotkey starts and stops a normal recording from outside Echo. The default is a tap on the right Ctrl key (RightCtrl) in direct-distribution builds; the Mac App Store build cannot bind a standalone modifier, so its default is Ctrl+Shift+Space.
| Activation mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Toggle | Press once to start and again to stop. |
| Push to talk | Hold the shortcut to record and release it to stop. |
Direct-distribution builds can register keyboard shortcuts and supported mouse-button bindings. On macOS, that direct input-hook path may require the operating-system permission requested by the build. The Mac App Store build uses the system global-shortcut backend and accepts keyboard shortcuts only; mouse-button activation is rejected.
If another application owns a combination, choose a different one in Settings. Echo validates and re-registers the binding when it changes.
Pause shortcut
The Pause Hotkey pauses or resumes an active recording while the main Echo window is open. Its default is the Pause key. Change it under Settings → App → General → Keyboard Shortcuts.
This shortcut is handled by the open popup only while recording. It does not start a capture and is not a replacement for the global recording shortcut.
Assistant and recipe shortcuts
Two more global shortcut families live in the same Settings section:
- Dictate to the last conversation and Dictate to a new conversation — hold the key, speak, release: the speech is transcribed and sent to the Assistant conversation. In direct-distribution builds they default to
RightCtrl+RightOption(last conversation) andRightCtrl+Shift(new conversation), and any right-hand modifier chord can be captured. The Mac App Store build cannot observe a key release globally, so push-to-talk shortcuts are unavailable there and both rows stay empty. - Recipe shortcuts — one row per enabled recipe you have bound, plus an Add a recipe shortcut picker. Pressing the key runs the recipe exactly like a voice trigger without a phrase.
The Assistant window itself can also be opened globally with its own configurable shortcuts (default Ctrl+Shift+A, and Ctrl+Shift+J to open it straight into voice capture). These live in the Assistant's configuration rather than the visible shortcut list; use the values shown in your installation as authoritative.
Popup actions
Starting or stopping a recording and opening the workflow/mode picker are handled by the global shortcuts described above (the Recording Hotkey and, for the picker, a hidden Ctrl+Shift+M default) — they fire everywhere, not only while the popup has focus, and are not part of this local handler.
The main popup itself also wires these keyboard handlers directly, when focus is not in an input, text area, or selector:
| Action | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Settings | ⌘, | Ctrl+, |
| Open Recipes | ⌘R | Ctrl+R |
| Copy the visible result | ⌘C | Ctrl+C |
| Copy and close a visible result | Enter | Enter |
| Cancel recording or processing, copy and close a result, or hide the idle popup | Esc | Esc |
These handlers are state-dependent. For example, copy is available only when a result is visible.
Some action-menu hints are visual labels for items such as the History window, the original/AI toggle, or the delete action; they are menu hints, not wired keyboard handlers in the current popup. Use those menu items or buttons directly. See The Popup for the complete state mapping.