Permissions
What Accessibility, Microphone and Screen Recording are each for, and where to check them later.
What each permission is for
| Permission | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Accessibility | Pastes the finished text where your cursor is, and runs the dictation hotkey if you’ve set it to a mouse button |
| Microphone | Your voice: dictation, and your side of calls |
| Screen Recording | The other side of calls, speaker names, meeting detection, Smart translation and Visual awareness |
Setup asks for them one at a time. Each card becomes active once the one above it is granted, and the third moves you on to the next setup page. One naming quirk: setup and Settings → Privacy call the third one Screen capture, while macOS calls it Screen Recording (Screen & System Audio Recording on macOS 15 and later).
Without Accessibility, dictation can’t type for you (see Your first dictation). Without Microphone, there’s nothing to transcribe.
What Screen Recording does
It has five jobs:
- capturing the other side’s audio during a call (your Mac’s system audio);
- reading the meeting window to name who is speaking (one window, never your whole screen; see Speaker names);
- spotting a meeting by reading the titles of open windows;
- once per recording, sending our servers a picture of the window you’re typing into, so Smart translation knows which language to write;
- taking a picture of your screen for each question you ask while Visual awareness is on (the screen icon at the left of the ask box in the Calls panel). See Using the Calls panel.
Nothing is captured unless one of those is happening. With Visual awareness off, no question carries a picture of your screen. And no voiceprint of anyone is ever saved: voices are told apart during the call only.
Plain dictation works fine without this permission. After granting it, close and reopen the Calls panel (⌘\) before Calls can hear the other side; if it still can’t, quit and reopen Cluinn.
Checking them later
Settings → Privacy shows where each permission stands. It’s a status view: the switches themselves are in System Settings → Privacy & Security, under Accessibility, Microphone and Screen Recording. Open Settings from the account chip at the bottom of the sidebar.
Your audio is never stored on our servers and never backed up. Where encrypted backup is switched on for your account, an encrypted copy of your calls, dictation transcripts, notes and folders is kept on our servers. More in Privacy settings.
Common questions
A permission prompt never appeared
Add Cluinn yourself: open System Settings → Privacy & Security, find the category and switch Cluinn on. Still stuck? See Troubleshooting.
Why does a dictation app need Screen Recording?
For dictation alone, it doesn’t: Accessibility and Microphone are enough. Screen Recording is for Calls (system audio, speaker names, meeting detection and Visual awareness) and for Smart translation.
Where do I turn on Accessibility?
Settings → Dictation shows a Permission row under After transcription, with an Enable Permission button that takes you straight to the right pane in System Settings. The row disappears once access is granted. See Dictation settings.