Cleanup styles
The six cleanup styles, what each one is allowed to change, and how to choose the right amount of freedom.
UPDATED 2026-07-28
A cleanup style decides how much freedom the AI has to change what you said. It runs after speech recognition, on the transcript, on your PC — no audio and no text leaves the machine.
Choose it in Settings under Writing style → Cleanup style.
The six styles#
These are the app's own descriptions, in the order they appear in the picker.
| Style | What Blabb says it does |
|---|---|
| Original | "Keep exactly what you said" |
| Fix typos | "Correct spelling and grammar only" |
| Clear | "Tighten wording, remove filler" |
| Professional | "Polished, formal wording" |
| Friendly | "Warm, conversational tone" |
| Screen match | "Correct using text visible on your screen" |
Original is the default, and it runs no cleanup model at all. The transcript is typed as recognised. That makes it the fastest style by a wide margin — there is nothing running between recognition and typing — and it is the only style that can never change a word you said.
The trade you are making#
The further down that list you go, the more freedom the model has, and the more you should read the result before you send it.
Fix typos is the smallest step away from Original. It repairs spelling and grammar and leaves your wording where it is. Most people who want any cleanup at all want this one.
Clear is for thinking out loud. Speak a rambling paragraph, get back a tight one. It removes filler and repetition, which means it removes words you actually said.
Professional and Friendly move the register in opposite directions — one towards something you would send a client, one towards something you would send a colleague. Both rewrite more than the styles above them. Read the output until you trust it.
Screen match reads the text visible in the window you are dictating into and uses it to correct what you said. Dictating a product code into a form, or a variable name into an editor, lands correctly because the right spelling is already on screen.
Important
If the exact words matter — a quotation, a dose, a figure, a name — use Original or Fix typos. A style that is allowed to improve your wording is allowed to change your meaning.
Screen match and remote desktop#
Screen match reads the active window by capturing it and recognising the text in the picture, so a remote session is not automatically a problem. What does stop it is an environment where that capture is unavailable or comes back empty — some locked-down and virtualised desktops. When there is nothing to read, Blabb does not fail: it cleans up your words without the screen context, which lands you close to Fix typos. See Remote desktop.
What every style shares#
- Punctuation is automatic. You do not have to say "comma" or "full stop" — though saying a specific mark does work when you mean it.
- Layout is not. You ask for it out loud — see Spoken layout commands.
- You can take words back. "Scratch that" and its relatives drop what you just said — see Correcting yourself as you speak.
- Your saved words are applied first. A word you taught Blabb is corrected on the transcript before any cleanup style sees it, and a rewrite that changes one is treated as having gone wrong and discarded. See Teach Blabb your words.
- Medical and legal vocabulary sits on top. The specialist vocabularies apply to every style, including Original, because they are a vocabulary and not a style. See Medical and legal.
Seeing what cleanup did#
Every dictation is kept in History with both versions side by side: Final text (what was typed), Original words (the raw transcription), and What changed between them. If you are deciding whether a style is too free with your words, that comparison is the place to settle it — see History.
Next#
- Spoken layout commands — line breaks, paragraphs and lists.
- Picking a style automatically — let Blabb choose per app.
- Correcting yourself as you speak — say "scratch that" and keep going.
- What affects speed — style is the biggest lever you have.