VoiceInk 1.74 for macOS

VoiceInk runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs with 64-bit processors, as long as you're on macOS 14 or newer. That covers a lot of ground, from M1 laptops to older x86 workhorses. Before you set it up, here are the questions that come up most often—and the plain answers.

No-internet dictation with on-device recognition

• Works with real-time microphone input, no internet required for the core transcription.
• Speaks English, Russian, and several other languages out of the box.
• Lets you add tricky names or jargon to a built-in user dictionary so it gets them right next time.
• Handy hotkeys and voice commands keep your hands near the keyboard.
• Saves transcribed text as plain TXT, formatted DOCX, SRT subtitles, or JSON for developers.

Does it fit my setup?

If you dictate in more than one language, the multi-language support is a real time-saver. The export options mean your words aren't locked inside one app—you can open them in Word, a video editor, or feed them into another tool. And the user dictionary learns the odd spellings and proper nouns that trip up every other transcriber. No big ceremony, just a solid tool that listens to what you say and puts it on the screen.

Quick fixes for a silent microphone

Most hiccups are small and fixable without digging through forums. Here's what I see people trip over, and the quickest way back to smooth dictation.

• Microphone not catching anything. Check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and make sure VoiceInk has a checkmark. No checkmark, no transcription—simple as that.
• User dictionary adding words that still get mangled. Type the word in lowercase, then hit save. The dictionary is case-sensitive, so "MacBook" and "macbook" are two different entries to it.
• Audio file processing stalls on a large WAV. Split the file into smaller chunks first. The app chews through ten-minute segments far more reliably than a two-hour recording.
• Hotkey stops responding after a macOS update. Reassign the shortcut in VoiceInk's preferences. System updates occasionally reset accessibility permissions and the old binding goes dead.

How a podcaster would use it

Imagine you record a solo episode, a raw WAV sitting on your desktop. You drag it into VoiceInk, wait a few minutes for the local processing to finish, then export an SRT file and drop it straight into your video editor. While that runs, you open a second window, set the mic to real-time, and dictate show notes into a DOCX. No uploads, no subscriptions, just your Mac and your voice getting the work done before lunch.

• macOS 14 or newer
• Apple Silicon or Intel 64-bit Mac