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These are tricks people have shared for setting up Vowen shortcuts beyond the defaults. For the full reference of every key, mode, and option, see Shortcuts.
Most of the patterns below rely on assigning multiple shortcuts (or alternative modifiers) to the same action. The free plan supports one shortcut per action; multiple shortcuts and the patterns that depend on them require Pro.

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Slide into hands-free without releasing your hand

If your push-to-talk and hands-free shortcuts share a common prefix, you can start dictating with one finger and “upgrade” mid-sentence by tapping the extra modifier. Release everything afterwards and Vowen stays in hands-free. Why it works: Vowen waits 500ms before deciding which shortcut you intended, so the longer combo wins if it arrives within that window. Great when you’re not sure how long a thought is going to run.

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Separate raw and polished onto two adjacent shortcuts

If you toggle AI Enhancement on and off through the day, give it its own shortcut instead of opening settings every time. Most useful when you alternate between dictating into code editors or AI prompts (where you want raw words) and writing emails or docs (where you want polish). Fn for terminal commands, Cursor prompts, and replies that need exact phrasing. Fn + Shift when you’re drafting prose.

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Bind hands-free to a mouse button

Useful when your hand is on the mouse and reaching back to the keyboard breaks flow: designers in Figma, video editors, anyone in a graphics-heavy app. Remap M4 or M5 in your mouse software to a key combination, then bind the same combination to Vowen’s hands-free shortcut. One click starts dictation, another stops it. Many vendor apps let you scope the remap per-app, so M4 can stay as “browser back” in Chrome and trigger Vowen only in Figma or Premiere.

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Pair left and right modifiers for two-thumb operation

Your thumbs already reach for Alt + Space (or Cmd + Space) regularly. Use left and right variants to do different things without learning a new finger pattern. Left to dictate. Right to ask the AI to act on whatever’s selected. The keys are identical, the side decides the behavior.

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Turn on Start Notes before you need it

The Start Notes shortcut is off by default, so most people don’t think about it until they’re already in a meeting. Flip it on in Settings > Shortcuts with the default Cmd + Shift + N (macOS) / Alt + N (Windows) or your own combo. The first time a call unexpectedly turns into something worth recording, you’ll be glad it’s already there.

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Adding more shortcuts? Reach for Tones instead

If you find yourself adding shortcut after shortcut for different writing styles (formal, casual, technical, dev), Per-app Tones is the cleaner answer. Tones change Vowen’s behavior based on the active app, so the same shortcut writes formally in Mail and casually in Slack with no thinking on your part.