Raw transcriptwhisper
hey sam can we move the design review to thursday afternoon i want to make sure we have time to walk through the recording overlay variants together
local-first dictation for macOS
fluister.
to whisper; spoken softly so as not to be overheard.
a tiny menu-bar app for your mac
that turns held breath into pasted text.
nothing leaves the machine.
that turns held breath into pasted text.
nothing leaves the machine.
hold ⌥ · email
↑ this is the entire app
↓Download Fluister 1.0for macOS · Apple Siliconor read the source on github →
free · ☕ if you like it
macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon
↳ runs offline↳ instant access↳ stays private↳ free forever● just your mac
§ 01 · local-first
Your voice never leaves your machine.
Fluister exists because dictation should be a private act. Whisper transcribes on your Mac’s GPU. An optional local model cleans up the text, also on-device. Everything happens between your microphone and your cursor. There’s nothing to disclose.
Cloud dictation apps
🎙Your microphone
│
↑ uploaded to a server somewhere
☁Their GPU · their logs · your data
↓ pasted back, eventually
│
⌨Your cursor
Fluister
🎙Your microphone
│
MWhisper on your Mac’s Metal GPU
│
○Local model cleanup, also on-device (optional)
│
⌨Your cursor
✕
no
cloud
Audio is processed on your Mac. Block Fluister at the firewall and it works the same.
✕
no
sign-in
There’s no account. We don’t have a login screen because we don’t have a server.
✕
no
subscription
Free. Buy me a coffee if it earns its place on your Mac.
✕
no
telemetry
Analytics aren’t collected. Errors stay on your Mac. There’s nothing to disclose.
§ 02 · profiles
Cleanup that knows where you are.
A profile is a small style prompt that runs after Whisper transcribes. Same words, four different houses. The active profile follows the app in the foreground. Speak into Mail and you get an email; speak into Cursor and you get a code comment.
→
Cleaned · emaillocal model
Hey Sam, could we move the design review to Thursday afternoon? I want to make sure we have time to walk through the recording overlay variants together.
Profiles are just markdown. Open one in Fluister, in Obsidian, or in any text editor; write a style prompt and scope it to a vocabulary of names and project terms. Point Fluister at a folder anywhere on your Mac (your iCloud Drive, a Dropbox folder, a git repo) and your profiles sync, version, and back up the same way the rest of your notes do.
§ 03 · questions
The honest answers.
Is it really fully offline? +
Yes. Whisper runs locally via
whisper-rswith the Metal feature. Cleanup runs through a local model on your Mac (or skip it). There is no network call in the happy path. Block Fluister at the firewall and it’ll work the same.What does it cost? +
Nothing. The app is free, source is public on GitHub. If it earns its place on your Mac, buy me a coffee. There’s no Pro tier, no team plan, no “subscribe for cloud sync”. By design, since there is no cloud.
Why Right Option specifically? +
Almost no app uses Right Option as a hotkey, so it doesn’t collide with anything. Hold-to-talk feels right. Release-to-paste is a clearer mental model than press-to-toggle. The shortcut is configurable in Settings, but the default is intentional.
How is this different from macOS Dictation? +
macOS Dictation is great for what it is, but punctuation and capitalization are weak, there’s no profile-aware cleanup, and the higher-accuracy server mode phones home. Fluister is on-device end-to- end, with profile-specific rewrites that turn a stream of words into a real email or a real code comment.
Will my words get used to train a model? +
No. They never leave your machine. The Whisper model is downloaded once to disk; it doesn’t learn from you. Cleanup runs through a local model on your Mac. Same story.
What about Intel Macs? +
Apple Silicon only for now. Whisper-on-Metal is what makes on-device transcription fast enough to feel instant. An Intel build is on the maybe-someday list; if you want it, file an issue.
Where does the history live? +
A local SQLite database under
~/Library/Application Support/Fluister/. Delete the file and the history is gone, same as deleting any other file on your Mac. There’s no “delete from server” because there is no server.§ 04 · get it
One file. One folder. Done.
Fluister 1.0.
A 10 MB Apple Silicon build, signed. Drag it to /Applications, grant microphone + accessibility on first launch, and you’re dictating.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon