# Pause Dimmy temporarily. Dimmy Help.

> Pause Dimmy temporarily. Step-by-step help for Dimmy, the native voice dictation app for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Source: https://dimmy.app/help/pause-dimmy/

[← Back to Help center](https://dimmy.app/help/)

Settings Reference

# Pause Dimmy temporarily

Disable the hotkey without quitting the app. Useful during screen recordings, presentations, or focus blocks.

## From the tray / menu-bar icon

1. Click the tray icon (Windows / Linux) or menu-bar icon (macOS).
2. Click Pause Dimmy.
3. The pill goes dim and the hotkey is ignored. The icon switches to a striped version to remind you Dimmy is paused.
4. Click the icon again → Resume Dimmy.

## From the pill

Right-click the pill → Pause. Same effect.

tip

Pause is per-process, not persisted. Restarting Dimmy resumes it. For a permanent off, quit Dimmy from the tray menu.

## What pause stops

* Global hotkey listener.
* Microphone access (the OS green dot turns off).
* Any in-flight transcription is cancelled cleanly.

## What pause does not stop

* The pill is still visible (faded). Hide it from Settings → Overlay.
* Update checks. They run in the background.
* The tray icon. It stays put so you can resume.

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## In this category

[ Settings ReferenceSettings overview: every tab, in one mapRight-click the pill → Settings. Ten tabs grouped by purpose. Use this as the index to find anything you can configure.](https://dimmy.app/help/settings-overview/) [ Settings ReferenceAudio input: microphone and processingSettings → Voice input. Pick the input device. The processing toggles ship off, because measurement showed they made transcripts worse.](https://dimmy.app/help/audio-input/) [ Settings ReferencePick the dictation languageAuto-detect or pin one of 15 languages. What the setting does depends on which engine you run: Whisper obeys it, Parakeet ignores it, Qwen3-ASR needs it.](https://dimmy.app/help/language/) [ Settings ReferenceStats: count, time saved, words dictatedSettings → Stats. Aggregate numbers computed from your local history. Time saved is the difference between speaking and typing the same text.](https://dimmy.app/help/stats/) [ Settings ReferenceAbout: version, updates, linksSettings → About shows the current version, runs an update check, and links to the repo, license, and acknowledgements.](https://dimmy.app/help/about-and-updates/)

Last updated: 2026-05-22

On this page

1. [01 From the tray / menu-bar icon](#from-the-tray-menu-bar-icon)
2. [02 From the pill](#from-the-pill)
3. [03 What pause stops](#what-pause-stops)
4. [04 What pause does not stop](#what-pause-does-not-stop)