How do I check the app is hearing me?

Press ▶ Test mic under the microphone picker and talk. The bar should turn green and push past the marked line.

The meter runs its own microphone stream, separate from voice mode, so you can test your input without turning dictation on. It shows a live level bar and a numeric peak.

Read it by colour:

• GreenPeak at or above 0.025. This is what you want; it is the level at which dictation into a text field reliably registers.
• AmberAudible but under that line. Voice will be unreliable.
• GreyEffectively nothing is arriving.

A dim tick on the bar marks the 0.025 threshold, so you are aiming at a visible target rather than a feeling. If you stay amber or grey while talking normally, the microphone is too quiet: pick a different input, move closer, or raise the input gain in your operating system.