EchoAct is a native macOS menu bar app that transcribes your voice directly on your device. No audio ever leaves your Mac.
| Engine | Backend | Requires |
|---|---|---|
| Parakeet TDT v3 | FluidAudio on Neural Engine | Apple Silicon |
| Apple Speech | Built-in SFSpeechRecognizer | Any Mac |
| API Provider | OpenAI Whisper, AssemblyAI, or compatible | Internet |
- Push-to-talk & toggle — start dictating with a hotkey, stop when you're done
- Multiple speech engines — Parakeet TDT v3 via FluidAudio (Neural Engine), Apple Speech (built-in), or a remote API
- Custom actions — define your own LLM prompts to fix grammar, translate, summarize, or anything else
- On-device Apple Translation — translate dictated text without an internet connection (requires macOS 26+)
- LLM providers — connect OpenAI, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible API
- Floating widget — always-on-top status panel with live audio levels
- Quick action panel — apply actions to selected text on the fly
- Transcription history — searchable log of everything you've dictated, with export
| Action | Hotkey |
|---|---|
| Dictate | Ctrl 1 |
| Apple Translate (on-device) | Ctrl Shift 2 |
| Quick Action | Ctrl 4 |
| Quick Clipboard | Ctrl 5 |
All hotkeys are fully customizable in Settings.
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- Apple Silicon required for Parakeet TDT (Apple Speech engine works on Intel too)
brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate
open EchoAct.xcodeprojThen build and run with Cmd+R in Xcode.
MIT