I built Dictator, a simple push-to-talk speech-to-text app for macOS. Hold a key, speak, release, and the transcribed text gets pasted wherever your cursor is.

The name is a play on words. “Dictation” because that’s what it does. “Dictator” because that’s how I sometimes view my relationship with this computer—I tell it what to do. And maybe a small nod to the times we live in.

I know, there are a lot of speech-to-text solutions out there, but I wanted something that was:

  • 100% Local: All processing happens on-device using whisper.cpp—your audio never leaves your Mac
  • No Internet Required: Works completely offline once installed
  • Fast: Metal GPU acceleration for near-instant transcription on Apple Silicon
  • Free: no hidden costs, no subscriptions
  • Lightweight: Minimal resource usage, stays out of your way
  • Non-obtrusive: Lives quietly in your menu bar, not the dock
  • Easy to Use: Just hold a hotkey to record, release to transcribe and paste
  • Push-to-talk: Natural workflow—hold to speak, release to transcribe
  • Visual Feedback: Icon animates (red → orange → yellow) based on audio level
  • Configurable: Choose your preferred hotkey (Right Option, Right Command, Left Option, or Left Command)
  • Auto-start: Option to launch at login
  • Self-contained: Model bundled in the app (no external dependencies)

And also important: I built it for myself to improve my productivity when writing code.

And since I was working on a client app that needs very sophisticated audio input handling, I figured why not use what I just learned to make something useful for myself and others?

Shure SM7 microphone, a classic dynamic microphone used for voice recording
The venerable classic Shure SM7... Great microphone, however I do not use it. Just my inbuilt Macbook mics.

How It Works

  1. Hold your configured hotkey (default: Right Option)
  2. Speak
  3. Release the hotkey
  4. Text appears at your cursor

The menu bar icon animates based on your voice volume so you know it’s hearing you. All transcription happens locally using whisper.cpp with Metal acceleration—no cloud, no API keys.

Note: English only for now.

Installation

Grab the .dmg from the releases page, drag the app to Applications, right-click and select “Open”. Grant microphone and accessibility permissions when prompted, and you’re set.

macOS Security

This app is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate, so macOS will show security warnings. This is normal for open-source apps distributed outside the App Store.

The app is safe—you can review the source code yourself. All audio processing happens locally on your Mac. No data is sent to any servers.

If right-click → Open doesn’t work:

  1. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security
  2. Scroll down to the Security section
  3. You’ll see a message about Dictator being blocked—click Open Anyway
  4. Confirm by clicking Open in the dialog

Resources

Questions or feedback? Connect with me on LinkedIn.