Features
Windows vs Mac
What Infina does on Windows, what a Mac also does, and why the two differ.
Windows does the things you say to your computer. A Mac also does the things you say about what's on your screen.
That is the whole difference in one line. Every system control — volume, music, locking, screenshots, dark mode, windows — works identically on both, and so do the quick answers. What a Mac adds is the set of things that depend on it seeing your screen or working out what you meant. 13 of the 20 abilities below work on Windows today.
Windows is newer here
Windows support is newer than Mac and we're still building it out. The gaps below are real ones we're working to close, not places we stopped caring.
Side by side
Everything Infina does, on both computers. Where Windows can't do something, the reason is on the row.
| What you can say | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Typing with your voice | ||
| Dictate into any appHold the key and talk | Yes | Yes |
| Hands-free — no key at allJust start talkingWorks on Windows, but it runs the speech model on your own laptop, so it needs at least 4 processor cores and 8 GB of memory. Infina checks and tells you if yours is below that. | Yes | Some of it |
| Works with no internetOn Windows this needs a laptop with at least 4 processor cores and 8 GB of memory, since the speech model runs on the machine itself. Below that, voice typing goes through the Cloud add-on instead. | Yes | Some of it |
| Controlling your computer | ||
| Volume, mute and unmute“Volume up” | Yes | Yes |
| Play, pause, next and previous track“Next song” | Yes | Yes |
| Lock, sleep and show the desktop“Lock my computer” | Yes | Yes |
| Screenshots“Take a screenshot” | Yes | Yes |
| Dark mode and light mode“Turn on dark mode” | Yes | Yes |
| Empty the bin“Empty the trash” | Yes | Yes |
| Move, resize and close windows“Close this window” | Yes | Yes |
| Opening things | ||
| Open an app“Open Spotify” | Yes | Yes |
| Open a website“Open GitHub” | Yes | Yes |
| Open Apple's own appsSafari, Messages, FaceTime, RemindersIt's an Apple app, so it only exists on a Mac. | Yes | No |
| Working with what's on screen | ||
| Press keys for you“Send it”Works on Windows when you're hands-free, but not yet while holding the key. | Yes | Some of it |
| Rewrite the text you've selected“Make this shorter”This one thinks about your words before acting, and that thinking runs on the Mac's own chip. Windows laptops don't have an equivalent we can rely on yet. | Yes | No |
| Read what's on your screen“What does this say?”This reads what's on screen through a macOS feature that Windows has no direct equivalent for. | Yes | No |
| Control a page inside your browser“Scroll down”, “Click the sign-in button”This reads what's on screen through a macOS feature that Windows has no direct equivalent for. | Yes | No |
| Scroll and jump around a document“Page down”, “Select all”This reads what's on screen through a macOS feature that Windows has no direct equivalent for. | Yes | No |
| Understanding you | ||
| Say it however you like“Could you knock the volume down a bit?”On Windows, Infina matches what you say against a set list of commands, so it helps to use the wording on this page. On a Mac it works out what you meant. | Yes | No |
| Two things in one breath“Open Spotify and turn the volume down”This one thinks about your words before acting, and that thinking runs on the Mac's own chip. Windows laptops don't have an equivalent we can rely on yet. | Yes | No |
Why the gaps exist
Every difference above traces back to one of these. None of them is a decision to give Windows less.
It reads what's on your screen
This reads what's on screen through a macOS feature that Windows has no direct equivalent for.
It thinks before it acts
This one thinks about your words before acting, and that thinking runs on the Mac's own chip. Windows laptops don't have an equivalent we can rely on yet.
It's an Apple app
It's an Apple app, so it only exists on a Mac.
It works, but not everywhere yet
It works on Windows in some places but not everywhere yet. We're closing this one.
What is the same on both
- Voice typing. Hold your key and talk, in any app, on any supported laptop.
- Every system control. All of them, at full parity.
- Opening apps and websites. Say the name.
- Working offline. Neither one needs the internet to type.
Email, chat and issue trackers — Gmail, Slack, Linear, Calendar — are not driven by voice on either computer. Nothing there was taken away from Windows; it was never part of the voice path.