dictly

Dictly is a free, open-source macOS app that lets you dictate text into any application by holding a hotkey. You hold a key, speak, release, and your words are transcribed and automatically pasted into whatever app has focus — a text editor, browser, email, anything. If it cannot get the necessary permissions to auto-paste, it falls back to putting the text on your clipboard so you can paste manually.

The key feature is that all of this happens entirely on your device. There is no cloud server, no account required, and your audio never leaves your Mac. It uses OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition model running locally via Apple's CoreML (the machine learning layer built into Apple Silicon chips). The app ships with a built-in Whisper model ready to go, and you can optionally download higher-quality, larger models from within the app if you want better accuracy.

It supports 99 languages, with either automatic language detection or a pinned language you set in preferences. You can choose between push-to-talk mode (hold to record, release to transcribe) or toggle mode (press once to start, press again to stop). The transcription speed is roughly 0.1 to 0.3 times real-time on Apple Silicon chips, meaning a ten-second recording takes about one to three seconds to transcribe.

The app runs as a menu-bar icon on macOS 15 (Sequoia) or newer, and requires Apple Silicon. It is written in Swift. The full README is longer than what was provided.