DictaFlow
DictaFlow is a hold-to-talk AI dictation app with native apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android (Telegram is optional on Android). Hold a shortcut or mouse button, speak, and release. DictaFlow types clean text into the app you are using, in supported text fields such as email, documents, chat, browsers, IDEs and EHRs. On Windows, Typing Mode types character by character, so it works in Citrix, Remote Desktop, VMware Horizon, terminals and fields that block paste. Custom vocabulary handles names, acronyms, code and medical or legal terms, and snippets expand saved text by voice. AI cleanup removes filler and fixes punctuation, and Smart Edit changes selected text by voice. Local Offline dictation works without internet on supported devices after setup. Free plan: 2,000 cloud words per 30 days. Pro: $9/month or $84/year on desktop and web.
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Handy
Handy is a free, open source, cross-platform speech-to-text app that runs completely offline and puts whatever you say directly into any text field. Press and hold a configurable keyboard shortcut, speak, and release; Handy records your voice, transcribes it locally, and pastes the result into the app you are using. Push-to-talk is enabled by default, but users can switch to a toggle mode that starts and stops recording with separate key presses. Handy supports macOS, Windows, and Linux and keeps voice data on the computer instead of sending audio to cloud services. Users can choose between Whisper models and Parakeet V3, Whisper provides broad multilingual support across more than 99 languages, while Parakeet V3 is optimized for fast CPU performance and automatic language detection. Silence is filtered with voice activity detection, and GPU acceleration is available for Whisper where supported.
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Paraspeech
Paraspeech is a speech-to-text app for Mac and iOS that turns spoken thoughts into clean text with a simple hold, speak, and release workflow. On Mac, users press and hold a hotkey in the app where they want to write, speak naturally, and release; Paraspeech processes the recording and attempts to insert the result directly into the active editable field, with clipboard fallback for unsupported fields. Apple Silicon Macs can use supported local speech modes, allowing audio to be transcribed on-device and work offline after setup, while eligible cloud-backed paths are also available depending on the selected backend. Fast local models cover English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and 25-language dictation, while Multilingual Large expands coverage to more than 100 languages where available. AI Rewriting can turn rambling speech into cleaner, formatted text through Cloud Cleanup or, where supported, an on-device rewrite model.
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FluidVoice
FluidVoice is a free, open source macOS dictation app that pairs local speech recognition with Fluid-1, an on-device AI model for polishing dictation. One hotkey lets users speak into any text field across email, documents, chat, terminals, code editors, and other apps, with text appearing in near real time. Local speech models keep dictation on-device and work offline, while optional AI post-processing can use Fluid Intelligence, OpenAI, Groq, or custom providers. Fluid-1 cleans up rough dictation, fixes formatting, capitalization, dates, names, and numbers, and adapts tone to the active app without changing the speaker’s meaning. Users can create custom prompts for different apps, while Write Mode, Command Mode, and Direct Dictation make it easy to switch contexts. FluidVoice supports more than 40 languages across models including Nemotron Speech 3.5, Parakeet Flash, Parakeet TDT v2 and v3, Cohere Transcribe, Apple Speech, and Whisper.
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