Sona has no wake word. There is no “Hey Sona”, no always-on mic waiting for its name. You hold a key, you talk, you let go. We think that is the right call — and not by accident.
A wake word means a microphone is always on, always deciding whether you meant it. That is a privacy cost, a battery cost, and a false-trigger comedy waiting to happen in every meeting. Push-to-talk inverts it: nothing is captured until you physically ask for it, and capture stops the instant you release.
Sona holds the right Ctrl key — present on every keyboard, sitting under a hand you are not typing with, and claimed by almost nothing. No chord to press, nothing to reach for, and you find it without looking. Hold-to-talk also gives a precise start and end, so the system never has to guess when you began or finished. Prefer a different key? Right Alt, Right Shift and F13–F20 are one setting away.
The best interface for dictation is one you forget is there. No invocation phrase to remember, no mode to toggle, no latency between intent and action. Press, speak, release — everything else is the computer’s job.