Talk to Admiral
You can talk to Admiral in two ways on a Mac:
- Shift-Shift. Double-tap either Shift key in any app. A panel opens and listens. Stop talking, or press Enter, and Admiral sends your words.
- The composer microphone. Click the microphone next to Send, or press Cmd+Shift+D. Your words go into the draft. Nothing is sent until you send it.
Speech becomes text on your Mac. Audio does not leave the Mac.
Set it up once
Shift-Shift needs three macOS permissions. The composer microphone needs the last two.
On macOS 27 and later, Apple calls the Accessibility permission Device Control and Data Access. Admiral uses the name your Mac shows. You do not need to find the pane yourself: the Allow button opens it.
| Permission | Why | Where to turn it on |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility (macOS 27: Device Control and Data Access) | Lets Shift-Shift hear the keys while another app is in front. | System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility (macOS 27: Device Control and Data Access) |
| Microphone | Records your voice. | System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone |
| Speech Recognition | Turns your voice into text. | System Settings > Privacy & Security > Speech Recognition |
To allow it:
- Click the Admiral icon in the menu bar.
- Click Allow Accessibility (macOS 27: Allow Device Control and Data Access). System Settings opens directly on that list. Do not look for it by name; App Management is a different list.
- Turn on Admiral.
- The menu bar menu changes to Double-tap Shift to talk. You do not need to restart Admiral.
If Admiral is already on in the list but the menu still says the permission is needed, the entry belongs to an older copy of Admiral. Select Admiral, click the minus button to remove it, then click the Allow item again.
If the menu says Relaunch Admiral to finish setup, click Relaunch. macOS sometimes lets the key listener start only after a relaunch.
macOS asks for Microphone and Speech Recognition the first time you talk. Click Allow both times.
See what is missing
Open Settings > Voice, or choose Voice settings in the menu bar menu. Each permission shows Allowed, or a button that opens the right part of System Settings. The page updates while you change System Settings.
If a recording cannot start, Admiral says which permission is off and shows a button for it:
- Open Microphone settings when Microphone is off.
- Open Speech Recognition settings when Speech Recognition is off.
- Open Keyboard settings when the on-device dictation language is not installed. Add the language under Keyboard > Dictation.
Choose where Shift-Shift sends your words
Settings > Voice > Destination has two choices:
- Auto-send sends your words to the Admiral assistant. The panel shows the reply and reads its short part aloud.
- Stage puts your words in a draft in the most recent session, so you can edit them before you send.
Turn it off
Turn off Settings > Voice > Shift-Shift. The menu bar menu then says Shift-Shift is off. The composer microphone and the Talk to Admiral button on Home still work.