FluidVoice - Open source voice-to-text dictation app for macOS with local AI

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Open source voice-to-text dictation app for macOS with on-device AI enhancement.

Install with Homebrew: brew install --cask fluidvoice

Manual download: latest release

Important

This project is free and open source under GPLv3. If FluidVoice is useful to you, please star the repository — it helps visibility and keeps development going.

Support FluidVoice

If FluidVoice helps you, you can support continued development and future platform work for iOS and Windows on GitHub Sponsors.

What's New in 1.6.0

Insanely fast Parakeet — rebuilt Parakeet implementation with pretty much zero delay between speaking and seeing words on screen

Fluid Intelligence — fully local AI model for on-device dictation enhancement. No cloud, no API keys, no data leaving your Mac

Better Theming — adaptive light/dark theme with a compact toolbar switcher

Refreshed Onboarding — language-first voice engine setup, real dictation tryout, and AI enhancement setup in one clean pass

Warning

Based on early feedback, Fluid Intelligence may cause you to unsubscribe from other dictation apps and save money. You've been warned.

Fluid Intelligence

FluidVoice is fully open source under GPLv3. Fluid Intelligence is a separate, privately maintained local AI runtime that powers advanced on-device dictation enhancement — smart formatting, context-aware capitalization, and post-processing — all running locally on your Mac.

The app works great on its own with any supported speech model and optional cloud AI providers. Fluid Intelligence adds a fully local, private AI layer for users who want on-device enhancement without sending data anywhere.

We're keeping Fluid Intelligence private for now so we can sustainably offer the core dictation experience for free. This may change in the future.

Star History

Fluid Intelligence Sneak Peek

Email Template Flowers

change_time_name.mp4

Email_template.mp4

Change Time & Name Emoji

emoji.mp4

flowers.mp4

Hyphens & Numbers

hyphen123.mp4

Demo

Command Mode — Take any action on your Mac using FluidVoice

FluidVoice_1.5_cmd_mode.mp4

Write Mode — Write or rewrite text in any text box in any app

writemode_FluidVoice_1.5.mp4

Screenshots

Command Mode

History & Stats

Features

Fluid Intelligence — on-device AI enhancement for smart formatting, context-aware capitalization, and post-processing, all running locally on your Mac with zero data leaving your machine

Command Mode — control your Mac by voice: launch apps, run shortcuts, trigger system actions, and automate workflows without touching the keyboard

Write Mode — write or rewrite text directly in any text field across any app. Select text and rewrite it, or dictate new content inline

Live Preview — real-time transcription overlay with notch support, so you see words appear as you speak

Multiple Speech Models — Nemotron Speech 3.5, Parakeet Flash, Parakeet TDT v3 & v2, Cohere Transcribe, Apple Speech, and Whisper. Pick the model that fits your language and latency needs

AI Enhancement — optional post-processing via OpenAI, Groq, custom providers, or local Fluid Intelligence for cleaner, more accurate transcripts

Audio History — optional local recording history with budget controls and ZIP export, so you can review past dictations without cloud storage

Today-Usage Stats — daily usage tracking at a glance with a stats header card and toolbar pill

Adaptive Theming — light/dark theme that follows your system, with a compact toolbar switcher

Global Hotkey — instant voice capture from anywhere, no app switching needed

Smart Typing — direct insertion into any app via accessibility APIs for reliable, app-independent text entry

Menu Bar Integration — quick access, status, and settings from the menu bar

Auto-Updates — seamless updates with an optional beta channel for early previews

Per-App Configuration — assign different prompt sets to different apps, so your dictation adapts to whatever you're working in. Fully optional

Notch-Aware Overlay — transcription overlay that fits cleanly around the MacBook notch, or use a standard overlay if your Mac doesn't have one

Local-First — your voice and text never leave your machine unless you opt in to a cloud AI provider

Fastest Parakeet on Mac — one of the fastest native implementations of Parakeet on macOS, with near-instant transcription and minimal latency

Configurable Overlay — choose from pill-shaped to large overlay sizes to show live preview, or keep it minimal. Everything is optional

Everything is Optional — AI enhancement, Fluid Intelligence, audio history, analytics, and beta builds are all opt-in. The core dictation experience works out of the box with zero configuration beyond permissions and a hotkey

Supported Models

Model Best for Language support Download size Hardware

Nemotron Speech 3.5 — Ultra Fast Low Latency Streaming-capable multilingual dictation ~40 languages ~670 MB Apple Silicon

Nemotron 3.5 Multilingual Higher-accuracy multilingual dictation ~40 languages ~530 MB Apple Silicon

Parakeet Flash (Beta) Lowest-latency live English dictation English ~250 MB Apple Silicon

Parakeet TDT v3 Fast default multilingual dictation 25 languages ~500 MB Apple Silicon

Parakeet TDT v2 Fastest English-only dictation English ~500 MB Apple Silicon

Cohere Transcribe High-accuracy multilingual dictation 14 languages ~1.4 GB Apple Silicon

Apple Speech Zero-download native macOS speech System languages Built-in Apple Silicon + Intel

Whisper Tiny / Base / Small / Medium / Large Broad compatibility, including Intel Macs 99 languages ~75 MB to ~2.9 GB Apple Silicon + Intel

Parakeet TDT v3 Languages

Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.

Parakeet TDT v2 Languages

English.

Cohere Transcribe Languages

English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Polish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Arabic.

Apple Speech Languages

System language support depends on the macOS speech recognition languages available on your machine.

Whisper Language Support

Whisper supports up to 99 languages, depending on the model size you choose.

Quick Start

Install with Homebrew:

brew install --cask fluidvoice

Or download the latest release.

Grant permissions — FluidVoice will ask for microphone and accessibility access. Both are required for dictation and typing into other apps.

Set your hotkey — pick a global hotkey in settings that triggers voice capture from anywhere.

Go through onboarding — choose your voice model based on your language and latency needs. Models range from zero-download Apple Speech to high-accuracy Nemotron and Whisper.

(Optional) Enable Fluid Intelligence — download the local AI model during onboarding for on-device dictation enhancement. Everything runs locally, no data leaves your Mac.

(Optional) Bring your own AI provider — add an OpenAI, Groq, or custom provider API key for cloud-based enhancement. Keys are stored securely in macOS Keychain. Select "Always allow" for key access.

(Optional) Opt in to beta builds — Settings → Automatic Updates → Beta Releases for early access to new features.

Requirements

macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later

Apple Silicon Mac for all models

Intel Macs supported via Whisper models (from 1.5.1+)

~1 GB disk space for a voice model

~3.5 GB disk space for the Fluid Intelligence model (optional)

Microphone access

Accessibility permissions for typing

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/altic-dev/FluidVoice.git cd FluidVoice open Fluid.xcodeproj

Build and run in Xcode. All dependencies are managed via Swift Package Manager.

Build Only (No Signing)

xcodebuild -project Fluid.xcodeproj -scheme Fluid -destination 'platform=macOS' build CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please create an issue first to discuss major changes before submitting a pull request.

Development Setup

Clone and open in Xcode as above.

Signing: FluidVoice → Signing & Capabilities → Automatically manage signing → pick your Team (Personal Team is fine). Stored in xcuserdata/ (gitignored).

Build and run — SPM handles dependencies.

(Optional) Pre-commit hook to prevent accidental team ID commits:

cp scripts/check-team-id.sh .git/hooks/pre-commit chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

Pull Request Guidelines

One feature or fix per PR — keep changes focused and atomic

Create an issue first so work is trackable before review

Discuss non-trivial changes before opening a PR

Follow the PR template

Test thoroughly on your machine

Never commit personal team IDs or API keys

Check git diff before committing

Run Integration Tests

xcodebuild test -project Fluid.xcodeproj -scheme Fluid -destination 'platform=macOS'

CI uses unsigned builds:

xcodebuild test -project Fluid.xcodeproj -scheme Fluid -destination 'platform=macOS' CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED=NO CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO

Privacy & Analytics

FluidVoice is local-first. Your voice, audio, and transcribed text never leave your machine unless you explicitly opt in to a cloud AI provider.

What's Collected (Opt-In)

Anonymous analytics are enabled by default to track app health and feature usage. You can disable at any time from Settings → Share Anonymous Analytics.

Collected:

App version, build, macOS version

Low-cardinality feature/config flags (e.g. app mode, major settings)

Approximate usage ranges (not exact values)

High-level success/error outcomes

Not Collected:

Voice, raw audio, or transcribed text

Selected text, prompts, or AI responses

Terminal commands, window titles, file paths, clipboard, or typed content

Any personal or private information

Community

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/VUPHaKSvYV

Follow development on X: @ALTIC_DEV

License

From 2026-02-23 onward, this project is licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3.0 (GPLv3).

Versions published before this date were licensed under Apache License 2.0.

About

Fastest and only macOS Dictation app with on-device STT and custom trained AI enhancement model - Local Wispr Flow alternative. One ⭐ takes us a long way :)) Windows, iOS and Linux coming soon.

altic.dev/fluid

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License

GPL-3.0 license

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FluidVoice v1.6.1

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Jun 28, 2026

+ 34 releases

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