Speak

Speak is a 100% local, native macOS dictation app built on Apple's SpeechAnalyzer and FoundationModels. Hold a hotkey, dictate, release — your text lands in whatever app you're working in. Free, open source, no cloud.

Why

Apple shipped a powerful on-device speech-to-text engine with macOS 26 — SpeechAnalyzer — but their built-in dictation UX is minimal. On top of that, FoundationModels enables on-device LLM-powered text cleanup without any cloud dependency. Commercial alternatives like Aqua Voice ($8/mo) and Wispr Flow ($8/mo) charge a subscription and rely on cloud processing.

Speak aims to bridge that gap: the accuracy of Apple's SpeechAnalyzer for transcription and FoundationModels for intelligent text cleanup, wrapped in a modern dictation UX, 100% free and open source.

Core idea

[Hotkey] → [Floating overlay] → [SpeechAnalyzer streaming] → [Preview text] → [Paste into active app]

• Fully on-device, no network required
• Works in any text field across any app
• Real-time streaming transcription with volatile + final results
• Lightweight native Swift app

Install

Download (easiest)

1. Grab the latest Speak.dmg from Releases
2. Open the DMG and drag Speak to your Applications folder
3. On first launch, you will get a warning about this app being unsigned
4. Open your Mac's Devices and Security setting and choose Open anyway at the bottom of the page (macOS requires this for unsigned apps — you only need to do it once)
5. Grant Microphone and Accessibility permissions when prompted

Build from source

Requires macOS 26+ and Xcode 26+.

git clone https://github.com/chasemcdo/speak.git
cd speak
make app       # builds build/Speak.app
make dmg       # packages into build/Speak.dmg (optional)
make tidy      # formats and lints source code

Or with Swift Package Manager for development:

cd Speak
swift build

Website

A simple Next.js landing/docs site lives in site.

cd site
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Build for production:

cd site
pnpm build

Status

Active development. See ARCHITECTURE.md and ROADMAP.md for details.

Requirements

• macOS 26+
• Xcode 26+ (build from source only)
• Microphone permission
• Accessibility permission (for pasting into active text fields)

License

GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)