Short answer: To dictate in Things, tap inside a new to-do, then use the mic key on iPhone or Fn-Fn dictation on Mac. For cleaner punctuation, custom project names, and tasks that arrive ready to file, use a system-wide voice tool like Voice Keyboard Pro, which types straight into the Things title and notes fields.
The whole point of a to-do app like Things is to get the thought out of your head before it slips away. You are walking out of a meeting, standing in line, halfway through cooking dinner — and a task lands. The faster you can capture it, the more likely it actually makes it into your system. Typing that task on a phone keyboard, or stopping what you are doing to find the right project, is exactly the kind of friction that makes good ideas evaporate.
Voice fixes that. You can speak a full task — title, notes, even when it is due — faster than you can unlock your keyboard and start thumbing it in. The catch is that getting voice to work smoothly inside Things takes a little setup, and the built-in options have real limits. This guide covers every way to dictate into the Things app on both Mac and iPhone, what each method does well, where it breaks down, and how to make voice capture feel as instant as Things itself.
Can you dictate directly into Things?
Yes. Things does not have its own voice button, but it does not need one. Things uses standard Apple text fields throughout — the to-do title, the notes area, project descriptions, and headings are all normal editable text. That means any dictation method that works in other apps works here too. The question is not whether you can dictate into Things, but which method gives you a clean, well-punctuated task without a second pass of editing.
There are three realistic paths: Apple's built-in dictation on iPhone, Apple's built-in dictation on Mac, and a dedicated voice tool that types into any field system-wide. Let's walk through each.
Dictating tasks in Things on iPhone
This is where most quick capture happens, so it is worth getting right.
Step 1: Open a new to-do
Launch Things and tap the + button in the bottom-right corner, or pull down on any list to create a new to-do at the top. The cursor lands in the title field automatically. You can also use the system-wide "Quick Find and add" if you have it set up, but for dictation it is simplest to start in a fresh to-do.
Step 2: Start dictation
On the standard Apple keyboard, tap the small microphone key to the left of the spacebar. Speak your task. When you pause, the words appear in the title field. To add detail, tap into the notes area below the title and dictate again — this is the right place for context like "ask Maria for the Q3 numbers first" or a link reference.
Step 3: Add scheduling by voice or tap
Things lets you type natural-language dates, but Apple dictation does not always hand them off cleanly. The reliable move is to dictate the title and notes, then use the calendar and "When" buttons to set Today, This Evening, or a specific date. If you say "today" inside the title, Things will not automatically schedule it — it will just write the word "today" into the task name.
Where it falls short: Apple's iPhone dictation has a hard timeout — it stops listening after a short stretch of speech or a pause, which is frustrating when you are dictating a task with a couple of sentences of notes. It also tends to drop or guess at punctuation, and it struggles with project names, client names, and acronyms that are not in the dictionary. If you have ever watched it turn a colleague's name into a random word, you know the problem. We cover the timeout issue in depth in our guide to why iPhone dictation stops after a minute.
Dictating tasks in Things on Mac
On the Mac, Things is often where you do your weekly review and heavier planning, so longer dictation matters more here.
Step 1: Enable Apple dictation
Open System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation and turn it on. Choose a shortcut — pressing the Fn (Globe) key twice is the default. The first time you use it, macOS may download a language pack.
Step 2: Click into a Things field and speak
Create a new to-do with ⌘N, click into the title, press your dictation shortcut, and talk. Press it again to stop. To fill in notes, press ⌘↓ or click into the notes field and dictate there.
Where it falls short: macOS dictation works, but it is a separate mode you have to toggle on and off, it inserts inconsistent punctuation, and it does not learn your vocabulary. If your projects are named "Helios Migration" or "ACME Renewal," you will be correcting those words on nearly every task. For one quick to-do that is tolerable; across a full planning session it adds up. If your Mac dictation is misbehaving entirely, our Mac dictation troubleshooting guide walks through the common causes.
The faster way: a system-wide voice keyboard
Built-in dictation treats voice as an occasional special mode. A dedicated voice tool treats it as a primary input method that works everywhere, including inside Things. That difference shows up the moment you start capturing more than one or two tasks a day.
Voice Keyboard Pro works on both platforms. On Mac it lives in your menu bar: you hold a hotkey, speak, release, and the text appears at your cursor — in the Things title field, the notes area, anywhere. There is no mode to toggle and no waiting. On iPhone it is a custom keyboard with a built-in mic button, so you switch to it inside Things, tap once, speak your task, and it types in for you. The same keyboard works in every other app too, which means one consistent voice experience whether you are filing a task, replying to a message, or jotting a note.
Three things make it noticeably better for task capture specifically:
- Automatic, accurate punctuation. You speak naturally and the sentence comes out properly capitalized and punctuated, so the task reads cleanly in your list instead of as one run-on phrase.
- Smart Vocabulary. On Mac you can add a personal dictionary with replacement rules, so "Helios Migration," "ACME Renewal," and your teammates' names come out correct every single time. No more fixing the same word on every task. We go deeper on this in how custom vocabulary learns your words.
- No short timeout. You can dictate a full task with a paragraph of notes without the engine cutting you off mid-thought.
It also handles the practical reality of how tasks get captured — quickly, on the move, often with a hand full of something else. We wrote about that pattern in hands-free voice notes while driving, and task capture is the same idea: speak the thing the instant it occurs to you.
A capture workflow that actually sticks
Here is a simple routine that takes advantage of voice for Things without fighting the app's structure.
1. Capture into the Inbox first, sort later
Do not try to file a task to the perfect project the moment it arrives. Open a new to-do in the Inbox, dictate the title and any notes, and move on. Sorting is a calm, deliberate activity for your weekly review; capture should be instant and frictionless. Voice is perfect for capture precisely because it removes the typing step that makes people skip capture entirely.
2. Speak the task as a clear next action
When you dictate, phrase the task the way you would explain it to yourself next week: "Email the landlord about the broken radiator and ask when the plumber can come." That is far more useful than a cryptic "radiator." Because speaking is faster than typing, you are not tempted to abbreviate into something you will not understand later. People naturally speak in fuller, clearer sentences than they type, and that works in your favor here.
3. Use the notes field for the "why"
Tap into the notes area and dictate the context — the link, the person, the reason this matters, the thing you do not want to re-derive. Voice makes this cheap. With a keyboard you would skip it; by voice you will actually add it, and future-you will thank you.
4. Schedule with taps, not words
As noted above, let Things' native date controls handle scheduling. Dictate the content, then tap Today, This Evening, or a date. Keep the spoken part to the actual task and let the structured part stay structured.
Common questions about dictating in Things
Does Things have a voice-to-text feature built in?
No. Things relies on the system's text input, so dictation comes from either Apple's built-in dictation or a third-party voice keyboard. There is nothing to enable inside Things itself — you enable dictation at the system level and then use it in any Things text field.
Why does my dictated task have no punctuation?
Apple's dictation often omits commas and periods unless you say them out loud ("period," "comma," "new line"). That is workable for a short title but tedious for notes. Tools built specifically for dictation add punctuation automatically from the rhythm of your speech, so you can talk normally and still get clean sentences.
Can I dictate to Things using Siri?
Siri can add a reminder to Apple Reminders, but Things is a separate app with its own database, so "Hey Siri, add a task to Things" does not reliably route there. Things does support Apple Shortcuts and a quick-entry feature, but for free-form task capture, dictating directly into a Things field — by built-in dictation or a voice keyboard — is the most dependable approach. If you live in Apple Reminders instead, see our guide to dictating in Apple Reminders.
Will dictation work in Things on iPad?
Yes. The iPad uses the same text fields as iPhone and Mac, so both Apple dictation and a voice keyboard work the same way. The iPad is actually a great place for voice capture because the on-screen keyboard is large and awkward for quick entry. We cover the broader picture in voice to text on iPad.
Why voice and task management belong together
Task managers fail for one boring reason: people stop putting things into them. Capture friction is the silent killer of every productivity system. The moment adding a task feels like work, you start "remembering" tasks instead — and remembering is exactly what the app was supposed to replace.
Voice removes that friction almost entirely. The average person types around 40 words per minute on a good day and far slower on a phone, but speaks comfortably at 130 to 150 words per minute. When capturing a task is as fast as saying it, you capture more, you capture sooner, and the contents are clearer because you spoke them in plain language. Things gives you a beautiful, calm place to put your commitments; voice makes filling it effortless.
If you want capture that keeps up with your thoughts on both your Mac and your iPhone, Voice Keyboard Pro has a free tier you can try today. Open a new to-do in Things, speak your next task, and watch it land already clean and ready to file. For comparison with other task apps, our guides on dictating in Todoist and dictating in Asana show the same approach across your whole stack.
The best task you ever captured is the one you actually wrote down. Voice makes "wrote down" as fast as "thought of."