Dictation

A clean, offline-first Flutter app that turns your voice into text — with real-time dictation, undo/redo, auto-save drafts, and file management.

---

Table of Contents

• About the Project
• Features
• Prerequisites
• Installation & Setup
• Usage
• Configuration
• Running Tests
• Contributing
• Changelog
• License

---

About the Project

Dictation is a minimalist, privacy-first note-taking app built with Flutter. It uses the device's native speech recognition engine — no cloud API required — to transcribe your voice in real time. Notes are auto-saved locally so nothing is ever lost between sessions. The app ships with English, Spanish, and French localizations and adapts to the device language automatically.

---

Features

Feature	Details
Real-time dictation	Continuous speech-to-text with auto-restart on interruption
Undo / Redo	Full edit history via Flutter's UndoHistoryController
Auto-save draft	Text preserved across sessions via SharedPreferences
Save & Load	Export notes as .txt files and reload them anytime
Share	Send transcribed text to any app instantly
Font size control	Adjustable editor font, persisted across sessions
Word & character count	Live counter displayed below the editor
Localization	English, Spanish, and French

---

Prerequisites

• Flutter SDK 3.12.0 or higher
• Dart SDK 3.12.0 or higher (bundled with Flutter)
• Android Studio / SDK for Android builds
• A connected device or emulator

Verify your setup:

flutter doctor

---

Installation & Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/lakescorp/Dictation.git
   cd Dictation

2. Install dependencies

   flutter pub get

3. Run the app

   flutter run

4. Build a release APK / AAB

   # APK
   flutter build apk --release
   
   # Android App Bundle (for Play Store)
   flutter build appbundle --release

---

Usage

Tap the microphone FAB at the bottom to start dictating. The app transcribes speech continuously and appends new words to the existing text. Tap again to stop.

// Core dictation loop (SpeechService)
await _speechToText.listen(
  onResult: (result) {
    final prefix = _wordsBeforeSpeech;
    _inputController.text =
        prefix.isEmpty ? result.recognizedWords : '$prefix ${result.recognizedWords}';
  },
);

Use the AppBar actions to undo, redo, save, or clear the current note. The overflow menu (⋮) gives access to Load file, Share, and Font size.

---

Configuration

This app runs entirely offline and requires no API keys. Copy the example environment file if you plan to extend the project with external services:

cp .env.example .env

See .env.example for available variables and their descriptions.

---

Running Tests

# Run the full test suite
flutter test

# Static analysis
flutter analyze

Tests cover FileService, DraftService, UI widget behaviour, and the app smoke test.

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request, and follow the Code of Conduct.

---

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a full history of releases.

---

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.