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The way you want text to look depends on where it’s going. A message to Slack should stay casual; an email in Gmail wants a greeting and a sign-off; a commit message wants a terse imperative line. Formats apply the right style automatically based on the app or site you’re dictating into. Dictate the same rambled thought into two apps and get two appropriately-shaped results — without changing a setting.

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How it benefits your output

A format attaches instructions to an app pattern. When the active app matches, those instructions steer the AI cleanup step, so the model doesn’t just tidy your words — it shapes them for the destination. For example, an “Email” format matching mail.google.com might instruct: “Format as a professional email with a greeting, body, and sign-off.” Say “hey can you send me the report thanks” into Gmail and you get a proper email; say it into Slack and it stays a quick message.

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Add a format

1

Open Formats

Find it in the sidebar and click Add format.
2

Label it

Give it a name like “Email” or “Commit message”.
3

Set an app pattern

Enter a pattern that matches the app name, URL, or window title. Patterns are pipe-separated and case-insensitive, and match if any piece appears anywhere in the context — for example mail.google.com | outlook | Spark.
4

Write the instructions

Describe how the text should be shaped, like “Format as a professional email with a greeting, body, and sign-off.”

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Matching rules

  • Substring match. A pattern piece matches when it appears anywhere in the app context (name, URL, or window title). mail.google.com matches the full Gmail URL.
  • Case-insensitive. Casing never matters.
  • Your rules win. Custom formats take priority over the built-in defaults, so you can override a default’s behavior for a given app.
  • First match applies. Only the first matching format is used per dictation.

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Defaults and custom rules

Freestyle ships with sensible default formats you can use as-is or tweak. Editing a default turns it into a custom rule (it gets a CUSTOM badge). Reset to defaults removes all your custom rules and restores the built-in set.
Formats work by steering the cleanup model, so they only take effect when AI cleanup is enabled. With cleanup off, your transcript isn’t reshaped and formats have nothing to hook into.

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Where it fits

Formats influence the cleanup stage — after transcription, before the dictionary applies its exact replacements. They decide how the text is written; the dictionary then swaps in any exact phrases you’ve defined.