Private real-time dictation app for Mac

In plain words

This Mac application provides real-time dictation functionality that processes speech locally on the user's device without sending audio to external servers. Designed for anyone who needs to convert spoken words to text while maintaining privacy, it appeals to users concerned about data security. The app's standout feature is its privacy-first approach, keeping all voice processing on-device rather than relying on cloud services.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

A blazing fast, real-time, system-wide dictation tool for your Mac. Very Fast Dictation is a minimalist, high-performance, and real-time transcription tool. It's designed for speed and efficiency, allowing you to dictate text from anywhere in your operating system with a simple keyboard shortcut. git clone https://github.com/aviaryan/Very-Fast-Dictation.git cd Very-Fast-Dictation Install dependencies: This project uses uv for package management. Once you have uv installed, run the following command to install the required packages: uv sync This will install all necessary dependencies including parakeet-mlx , pynput , pyside6 and others. uv run main.py The application will start running in…from github.com

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  DictlyOct 2025 · dictly.app · ▲240

  TL;DR: I built a native macOS dictation app that transcribes locally and instantly. Text appears as you speak (measured ~100 ms first‑character latency). No accounts, no servers, no tracking. Links: • Website: https://dictly.app • Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/dictly-no-keys-just-clarity/id... • Free download; optional Pro tier (pipelines, unlimited history, etc.) What it does Real‑time transcription — streaming text while you talk, not after you stop. Quick‑Capture Overlay (macOS) — global hotkey, drop text into any app/field.…

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  DictatoFeb 2026 · dicta.to · ▲93

  I built a macOS dictation app where everything runs on-device. Transcription, auto-correct, translation. No audio or text leaves your machine. It ships with 4 transcription engines you can swap between: WhisperKit (99 languages), NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B (25 European languages, fastest of the bunch), Qwen3-ASR 0.6B (30 languages), and Apple Speech on macOS 26+. They all run through CoreML/Metal. Whisper is the most versatile, Parakeet wins on raw latency for European languages, Qwen3 does better with CJK. I went with a protocol-based architecture so you pick the engine that fits your…

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  SaylineJan 2026 · sayline.app · ▲83

  I built a voice dictation app for macOS mostly because I was tired of how awful Siri is and I didn't want to pay a subscription for cloud tools. The app uses NVIDIA's Parakeet v3 (TDT) as the primary engine. Inference is handled by the FluidAudio library. It's insanely fast on M-series chips. For Intel users, I added local Whisper support ranging from Tiny up to Large v3 Turbo (quantized to save space). The interesting part was the AI integration. I originally tried to pipeline the ASR output into Apple's Intelligence Foundation Model. It was a nightmare, because the content moderation…

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  TongueType for macOSMay 2026 · tonguetype.app · ▲109

  Hi HN, I'm a longtime web dev, but this is my first macOS app. Feedback is very welcome <3 I built TongueType because every dictation app I tried failed at least one of three things: it sent my audio to someone's cloud, it charged me monthly fee, or it felt clunky or enterprisy. The cloud thing kills it for anything sensitive. The subscription thing is insulting for what amounts to "Whisper + a hotkey." TongueType runs Whisper locally on Apple Silicon via CoreML. It's built to feel like a second keyboard: tap the hotkey, talk, let go, words appear. It sits in the menu bar (no dock icon, no…

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