Use the Dictation Key as Shortcut
Activate Spokenly with the built-in microphone key on your MacBook keyboard.
MacBook keyboards have a dedicated dictation key in the function row. You can remap it to activate Spokenly instead of Apple Dictation using hidutil, a built-in macOS utility. No third-party tools required.
Quick Setup
Open Terminal and remap the dictation key to F5:
hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{
"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0xC000000CF,
"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x70000003E
}]}'In Spokenly, go to Keyboard Controls and record F5 as the activation shortcut by pressing the dictation key.
This works immediately, but resets on restart. To make it permanent, use a LaunchAgent.
Persist Across Restarts
A LaunchAgent loads the remap automatically at login.
Create the file ~/Library/LaunchAgents/app.spokenly.KeyRemapping.plist with this content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>app.spokenly.KeyRemapping</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/bin/hidutil</string>
<string>property</string>
<string>--set</string>
<string>{"UserKeyMapping":[{
"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0xC000000CF,
"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x70000003E
}]}</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>Load it:
launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) \
~/Library/LaunchAgents/app.spokenly.KeyRemapping.plistUndo
Reset the mapping:
hidutil property --set '{
"UserKeyMapping":[]
}'If you installed the LaunchAgent, remove it too:
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u) \
~/Library/LaunchAgents/app.spokenly.KeyRemapping.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/app.spokenly.KeyRemapping.plistOn some managed (MDM) Macs, hidutil may be restricted by your organization's policies.