The Veda key
One key does everything — a tap, a hold or a double-tap. Here's exactly how each is recognised, and how to pick a different key.
Veda listens for a single key on the right-hand side of your keyboard. Right-hand only, on purpose: the left-hand keys keep doing their everyday jobs — accented characters, shortcuts, capital letters.
The default key
| Mac | Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| Default | right ⌥ Option | Right Ctrl |
| Also available | right Command, right Control, right Shift | Right Shift, the Menu key |
To change it, open Veda, click Settings, and pick from Trigger key on the General page. The change applies straight away. (Setup also asks you to pick one.)
A few things worth knowing:
- Fn / Globe isn't offered on Mac — macOS uses a tap of it for emoji and dictation.
- Right Alt isn't offered on Windows — on keyboards with AltGr it's reported as Ctrl+Alt, and a lone Alt tap moves focus out of the text field.
- The Menu key (between Right Alt and Right Ctrl on many desktop keyboards) is taken over completely once you choose it, so it stops opening right-click menus.
Tap, hold, double-tap
| Gesture | What counts | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tap | Press and release within about 0.4 seconds, with no other key in between | Rewrite, rewrite the selection, or draft a reply |
| Hold | Hold it on its own for about half a second, then let go | Opens Edit mode |
| Double-tap | A second tap within about 0.35 seconds of the first | Starts voice dictation in a text box, or opens Ask Veda anywhere else |
Holding the key while you press something else — a shortcut, a capital letter — never triggers Veda. Resting a thumb on it for several seconds doesn't either.
What a tap does
A tap looks at the field your cursor is in:
- Empty field → Veda reads the conversation on screen and drafts your reply. See Replies.
- Text in the field → your rough words come back clean, in your voice. Same meaning, roughly the same length.
- Text selected → only the selection is rewritten, and it drops straight back into the sentence.
- Your text, two blank lines, then an instruction → the instruction is applied to your text. For example, type a message, press Enter three times, write
make this more formal, and tap.
If there's no text field where your cursor is, you'll hear a short error sound and nothing changes.
While it's writing
- A thin line runs along the bottom of the text box, in the colour of what Veda is doing. When the text lands, the new lines glow for a moment. Press Esc to stop. Your text isn't touched until the result is ready, so stopping leaves it exactly as it was.
- Sounds: a tick when Veda hears the key, a chime when the text lands, and a low tone if something went wrong. Switch them off with Sound effects in Settings → General (the Play button previews them).
- Don't want the line? Turn off Writing indicator in Settings → General.
Pausing Veda
Switch off Veda is on in Settings → General. The key does nothing until you switch it back on, and the menu-bar or tray panel says Paused.
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