The 8 dictation tones explained — when to use Casual vs Professional vs Slack vs Email
Pithflow ships 8 cleanup tones. Most users pick Casual on day one and never change. Here's what each tone actually changes about your output, and when to switch.
AI dictation cleanup isn't one operation — it's a set of rules the model applies based on the tone you've picked. The same raw transcript will look very different on the page depending on which tone is selected. Most users pick the default Casual on day one and stop there. They're leaving the best part of the cleanup on the table.
Here's what each of the 8 tones actually does, when to use them, and the real before/after examples that show the difference.
The raw transcript we'll keep coming back to
For every tone below, we'll start from the same dictated audio:
"Um so basically I wanted to follow up on the proposal you sent over yesterday. I think uh the budget section looks good but I had a couple of questions about the headcount estimates. Specifically you have like twelve engineers in year two and I'm wondering you know if that's realistic given the hiring market right now."
This is honest dictation — filler words, restarts, casual phrasing, everything. Let's see what each tone does with it.
1. Casual — the default
Use when: friend chats, personal notes, anything where your normal voice is the right voice.
Casual cleanup strips filler words, applies basic punctuation, and keeps your phrasing intact. Doesn't add structure. Doesn't formalize.
"Wanted to follow up on the proposal you sent yesterday. The budget section looks good but I had a couple questions about the headcount estimates. Specifically — you have twelve engineers in year two, and I'm wondering if that's realistic given the hiring market right now."
2. Professional
Use when: business memos, formal correspondence, longer-form documents where you want measured language.
Professional removes contractions ("I'm" → "I am"), structures paragraphs more deliberately, and uses fuller phrasing.
"I wanted to follow up regarding the proposal you sent yesterday. The budget section looks reasonable, but I have a few questions about the headcount estimates. Specifically, your projection of twelve engineers in year two: is that realistic given current hiring conditions?"
3. Slack
Use when: internal chat, quick team messages, anything threaded.
Slack tone aggressively shortens. Cuts opening pleasantries. Splits long thoughts into multi-message format. Drops the salutation.
"Following up on the proposal from yesterday. Budget section looks good, but I have questions on headcount. 12 engineers in year 2 — is that realistic given the hiring market?"
4. Email
Use when: external emails, longer correspondence with clients or partners.
Email adds a greeting (if the recipient is mentioned), structures the body with paragraph breaks, and ends with a clear closing.
"Hi,
I wanted to follow up on the proposal you sent over yesterday.
The budget section looks good, but I had a couple of questions about the headcount estimates. Specifically, you have twelve engineers in year two — I'm wondering if that's realistic given the current hiring market.
Would you have time to discuss this week?"
Yes, the cleanup added the closing question. Email tone is the most "additive" of the bunch — the model knows that emails usually end with an ask, so it'll add one if you didn't say one. Useful for quick correspondence; turn off if you only want literal output.
5. Code comment
Use when: JSDoc, Rustdoc, Python docstrings, inline comments.
Code comment tone is the strictest: terse, factual, no flourish, no marketing copy. Strips "basically," "essentially," and any softening language. Doesn't add greetings or closings.
Original (rewritten as a doc string): "Validates that the user ID exists before calling the endpoint. Returns null if not found."
The original example doesn't fit code comment well — that tone is built for "describe what this function does" not "follow up on a proposal."
6. Note
Use when: personal notes, journal entries, brainstorm capture, anything you're writing for your future self.
Note tone preserves your thinking. Doesn't formalize, doesn't reword, doesn't add structure you didn't speak. Removes filler but otherwise leaves your voice almost untouched. Best for capturing ideas before you forget them.
"Follow up on the proposal — budget section looks good. Couple of questions about headcount estimates. 12 engineers in year 2 feels high given the current hiring market."
7. Concise
Use when: ticket descriptions, jira issues, anything where the next reader needs the gist fast.
Concise is the most aggressive at compression. Strips qualifiers, drops connective phrasing, keeps only the load-bearing facts. Often half the length of Casual.
"Question on the proposal's headcount: 12 engineers in year 2 may be unrealistic given the hiring market."
8. Friendly
Use when: customer messages, support replies, anything where warmth matters.
Friendly adds light warmth: opens with acknowledgement, uses softer phrasing, ends with an offer to help. Doesn't go overboard — it's warmth, not sycophancy.
"Thanks for sending the proposal! The budget section looks great. I do have a couple of questions about the headcount estimates — specifically, twelve engineers in year two seems ambitious given the current hiring market. Happy to discuss when you have a few minutes."
The 6 intent modes (the second dimension)
Each tone above pairs with an intent mode. The default is Refine — light cleanup, your voice preserved. Other modes change the model's job entirely:
- Refine — clean up. The default.
- Build — preserve code identifiers and technical terms verbatim. Use when dictating with code in your sentences.
- Summarize — collapse the input to ~1/3 the length, keep the meaning. Useful for long brainstorms.
- Capture — minimal cleanup, fast journal style. Closest to raw output.
- Outline — convert prose to bulleted structure.
- Translate — translate the input to a target language. The one mode that does change the language.
8 tones × 6 modes = 48 distinct cleanup behaviors. That's overkill for most users — but power users live in the 5-6 combinations they reach for daily.
How to actually choose
Most users only need three tones in active rotation:
- One default for routine work (Casual or Professional).
- One for chat (Slack).
- One for long correspondence (Email).
Set keyboard shortcuts to swap between them in one keystroke (Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3). After a week you'll switch without thinking — and your output will read consistently right for each context, without you editing tone afterwards.
The tone tab in Pithflow lets you preview each one against a sample input. Test the same sentence across all 8 once. The differences surprise people.
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