Willow’s voice keyboard lets you type across all your iOS apps — and actually edit what you said

One of the astir effectual usage cases to person emerged from modern AI models is their quality to recognize the quality dependable better, which has led to much close dictation tools. One specified Mac tool, Willow, is launching an iOS app to fto users benignant with their dependable crossed each apps.

Similar to Wispr Flow, Willow’s keyboard transcribes your dependable and besides formats the connection according to the context. The app, which supports implicit 100 languages, lets you specify your ain vocabulary presumption oregon make antithetic penning styles crossed app categories similar work, messaging, email, and others.

One cardinal vantage of Willow’s app is that determination is simply a afloat keyboard disposable to type, whereas Wispr Flow lone offers a numeric keyboard. This helps with speedy edits to modify immoderate words oregon sentences alternatively than typing them out. Plus, you don’t person to power to different keyboard erstwhile you privation to benignant immoderate words alternatively of speaking them.

Image Credits Willow

Willow was founded by Allan Guo and Lawrence Liu, who attended Stanford and dropped retired to physique a startup. Gui got into Y Combinator successful the summertime of 2024 with a antithetic acceptable of co-founders, and their archetypal thought was successful healthcare — specifically to physique bundle to negociate assisted surviving facilities. However, the thought didn’t stick, and for a year, the institution tried to physique antithetic things.

“While we were moving connected healthcare solutions, we noticed that doctors person dependable AI scribes that grounds conversations with patients and make documents for follow-ups. I had a batch of conversations with doctors; they said these notetakers were precise utile to them. This nudged america to physique a dependable AI instrumentality for cognition workers and different users,” Guo told TechCrunch implicit a call.

Guo added that helium chose not to physique different AI notetaker due to the fact that helium felt that the marketplace was saturated. Instead, the dictation abstraction was much appealing arsenic a batch of connection takes spot extracurricular meetings. He said that the institution uses a bid of models and focuses heavy connected tuning its text-to-text pipeline, which is based connected Meta’s Llama models, for formatting and personalization

Image Credits: Willow

The startup past moved its YC batch to Spring 2025 to motorboat the product. The institution said that since the launch, it has grown 50% period implicit period successful presumption of users. It besides has endeavor customers similar Uber, Heidi Health, and Zeg utilizing the instrumentality for dictation with features similar customized squad vocabulary.

Willow has raised $4.5 cardinal from Box Group, Y Combinator, Burst Capital, and angel investors specified arsenic HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah; Gusto’s Tomer London; Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian; ex-Yelp COO Kipp Bodnar; Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian; Adam Guild, co-founder and CEO of the edifice bundle institution Owner; and Instacart co-founder Max Mullen.

Mullen said that helium believes that the astir astonishing idiosyncratic interfaces successful the aboriginal are going to beryllium voice-led.

“I was truly impressed with Allan’s imaginativeness astir not conscionable creating a large dictation app but, agelong term, aiming for creating an interface that tin power your computer,” helium said. “When I americium penning done Willow, I request to marque less edits than I had to with a computer’s built-in dictation system.”

Mullen pointed retired that 1 of his favourite workflows was that connected desktop, you tin besides usage the “Hey Willow” adjunct to instruct the app to constitute things similar email replies successful your ain voice.

The startup competes with different players similar Wispr Flow, which has raised much than $56 cardinal successful backing to date; Monologue, which is portion of Every’s subscription bundle; and the YC-backed startups Aqua, Talktastic, Superwhisper, and Betterdication.

Guo said that successful the coming months, it plans to bash level enlargement with Windows and Android, on with amended personalization to trim the fig of manual edits users person to bash station dictation.