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A comment on Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS with no model to download. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by pancomplex on Monday July 27, 2026 @11:42PM (#49079055)
I don't think you're missing something - Apple's built in dictation is pretty good. The biggest issue is that it still executes parts of it online via Apple's servers and even has a disclosure that it "sends information like your voice input, contacts, and location to Apple."

This project uses the on-device SpeechAnalyzer API directly and makes zero network calls, and since it's open source you can verify that nothing leaves your Mac. It also keeps a local searchable history. Finally, I also added press-to-stop with a preview so you can cancel a bad take before it inserts, instead of typing live (very useful in terminal).

What type of package were you hoping it was?

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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by heresalexandria on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @12:23AM (#49079329)
Ahh that makes sense, I was under the impression that OS dictation used exclusively on device models for dictation now but you're right - they do still send this data for transcription.

That definitely changes my take and I'm interested in trying this!

My initial assumption was that this was something I could invoke via CLI or within scripts to transcribe audio from files or user input using on-device models, which is something I would presently probably use Whisper for.

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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by pancomplex on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @12:32AM (#49079385)
That would be a super trivial fork actually! You basically just need this file https://github.com/FrigadeHQ/yap/blob/main/Sources/Services/... and then wrap a cli around it :)
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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by HaloZero on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @01:00AM (#49079561)
Does the new SpeechAnalyzer API not call Apple Servers? I remember when I was building on the last version, it you wanted real time transcription you needed at least to upload it to Apple Servers for processing.
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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by pancomplex on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @02:06AM (#49080002)
I think it once did! Now it doesn't - ways to easily verify this:

1) install the dmg in the GH repo

2) turn off wifi

3) use it offline

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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by echoangle on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @07:25AM (#49082261)
That doesn’t prove it doesn’t send data if it has the possibility. It could use the offline model only as a fallback.
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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by ganeshmshetty on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @12:51AM (#49093536)
yeah, this is a possibility and also they could store it and send it after we appear online.
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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by RichAwo on Tuesday August 11, 2026 @07:59AM (#49256876)
The funny thing about this project is that I own https://www.yaps.ai which is also offline dictation, amidst a ton of other things (e.g. speech generation, meetings, video editing, etc.). And I legit thought this thread was about my tool until I opened it up.
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Re:Show HN: Yap – OSS on-device voice dictation for macOS wi... by earthpyy on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @03:14AM (#49080440)
I was having the same question, now it makes sense.
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