Voice to Text: Why Typing Feels Slow
You think at 150 words per minute. You type at 40. The gap is real, and it costs you ideas every day.
Why Typing Feels Slow
Your brain runs at speaking speed. The keyboard forces you to translate thoughts into finger movements. Voice skips this translation. Whisper Notes converts speech to text locally—on Mac using Whisper Large-v3 Turbo, on iPhone using Neural Engine-optimized models. Your audio never touches a server.
- •Mac: Hold Fn to dictate anywhere—Claude, ChatGPT, Slack, VS Code, anywhere
- •iPhone: Lock Screen Widget starts recording in 1 second flat
- •Everything happens on your device. Nothing uploaded. Ever.
- •$4.99 once. Both platforms. No subscriptions.
Mac (macOS 14+, Apple Silicon) · iPhone (iOS 18+)
Desktop: Talk to Any App
Every text field on your Mac is now a voice interface. Email drafts, Slack replies, code comments, AI prompts—anywhere you can type, you can now speak. Hold Fn, talk, release. Your words appear at the cursor. No app switching. No waiting.
System-Wide Voice Input
Whisper Notes installs a global shortcut. In any app—Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Gmail, Notion, VS Code, even Terminal—hold Fn and speak. When you release, Whisper Large-v3 Turbo processes your audio locally. Text appears where your cursor is. Zero cloud latency.
- •Works in every Mac app. No exceptions.
- •Text appears at cursor position instantly
- •Whisper Large-v3 Turbo: 1.5B parameters, runs locally
- •Setup takes 30 seconds: Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts → Enable
Works in: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Gmail, Slack, VS Code, Terminal, Notion
Streaming Results
You don't wait for the whole file to finish. Results appear paragraph by paragraph. Start reading and editing while transcription continues in the background.
Custom Vocabulary
AI models stumble on names and jargon. Add your vocabulary—company names, product names, technical terms. Capitalization is preserved ("Claude Opus 4.5" stays "Claude Opus 4.5", not "claude opus").
Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, Whisper · OAuth, TypeScript, Kubernetes · HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2
Silence Handling
Whisper hallucinates during long pauses—repeating phrases or inventing words. Voice Activity Detection catches these silence gaps and handles them correctly. Hallucinations drop by 70% on audio with natural pauses.
How Fast?
M4: 12x real-time (2 hours of audio → 10 minutes)
M3/M2: 10x real-time
M1: 8x real-time
The Killer Use Case: Talking to AI
Prompting Claude
Hold Fn, describe your problem in detail. Speaking naturally produces better prompts than typing ever could. Release, send. No copy-paste from a separate app. Just you and the AI, talking.
Slack and Email
Long replies are friction. Voice removes the friction. Hold Fn in the compose field, say what you mean, release. Done in 20 seconds instead of 3 minutes of keyboard pecking.
First Drafts
Writers consistently report that dictated first drafts feel looser and more honest. The keyboard creates a subconscious editing layer. Voice bypasses it. Get the ideas out first, edit later.
Mobile: Capture Ideas When They Strike
Good ideas don't wait for you to sit down at a desk. They hit you on walks, in the shower, at 2am, waiting in line. The Lock Screen Widget reduces capture friction to near zero. One tap, speak, done. The thought is saved before it fades.
Lock Screen Widget
- •1 second from phone-in-pocket to recording
- •Live Activity shows duration while you speak
- •Dynamic Island displays recording status
- •No app to open, no passwords to type
Hands-Free Capture
- •Gloves, wet hands, arms full of groceries—all work
- •AirPods start/stop via tap gesture
- •Whisper-level sensitivity for quiet rooms
- •Wind and ambient noise handling for outdoors
Export Anywhere
- •Copy to clipboard for instant paste
- •Share to Notes, Messages, email, any app
- •Export with timestamps for review
- •SRT format for video subtitles
The 2am Idea Problem
Before Sleep
"That API design is wrong. Events should be immutable. Refactor to event sourcing pattern first thing tomorrow."
Morning Run
"Article idea: the keyboard as a thought compression algorithm. We write differently than we think because typing is slow."
Walking
"The meeting is stuck because we're optimizing the wrong metric. Reframe around retention, not engagement."
Why Offline Matters
Your Audio Never Leaves Your Device
- •No server upload—processing happens on Neural Engine (iPhone) or Metal (Mac)
- •No data retention policies to worry about because there's no data transmission
- •Safe for confidential conversations, HIPAA-sensitive notes, legal work
- •Your voice recordings exist only on hardware you own
Works Without Internet
- •Airplane mode, subway tunnels, spotty Wi-Fi—all work
- •Secure facilities that block network access—works
- •Latency is just processing time, not network round-trip
- •Performance doesn't degrade when servers are overloaded
Pay Once, Use Forever
- •$4.99 once covers iPhone and Mac. Both.
- •No per-minute charges, no usage caps, no "free tier" limitations
- •Heavy voice users pay $120-180/year elsewhere
- •You break even in the first month
How It Compares
| Feature | Whisper Notes | Apple Dictation | SuperWhisper | Wispr Flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processing | 100% on-device | Apple servers | 100% on-device | Cloud servers |
| iPhone + Mac | $4.99 both | Free | Mac only | Mac only |
| Lock Screen Widget | Yes | No | No iPhone app | No iPhone app |
| System-wide Fn Key | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Price Model | $4.99 once | Free | $8.49/mo or $249 | $10-15/month |
| AI Model | Whisper Large-v3 Turbo | Apple proprietary | Whisper variants | GPT-4 + Whisper |
| Custom Vocabulary | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Annual Cost | $4.99 total | Free | $102/year | $120-180/year |
Whisper Notes is the only option that combines: both platforms + 100% offline + lock screen capture + one-time payment.
The Honest Trade-offs
Local processing has real trade-offs. We think they're worth it for most people, but you should know what you're getting into:
Model Download
Mac ships with a 580MB universal model that works on all Apple Silicon Macs. If your machine has more horsepower, you can download Whisper Large V3 Turbo (~3GB) in-app for higher accuracy. We're actively testing new architectures like Parakeet to push on-device transcription even further.
Apple Only
This is an Apple Silicon app. M1 or newer Mac, iOS 18+ iPhone. No Android. No Windows. No Intel Macs. If you're not in the Apple ecosystem, this isn't for you.
Speed vs Cloud
Local inference is slower than cloud APIs. 10 minutes of audio takes 1-2 minutes to process on iPhone 15. Cloud services return in seconds. If you need instant results on hour-long recordings, cloud might be better.
Accuracy Ceiling
Whisper hits 95%+ accuracy on clear speech. Heavy accents, loud background noise, or mumbling will need some editing. If you need 99.9% accuracy for a medical transcript, hire a human transcriptionist. If you need 95% accuracy instantly and privately, this works.
Get Started
iPhone
- 1.Download Whisper Notes from App Store ($4.99)
- 2.Launch once—model downloads automatically
- 3.Long-press home screen → tap '+' → search 'Whisper Notes' → add widget
- 4.Tap the widget from your lock screen. You're recording.
Mac
- 1.Download Whisper Notes (included with iPhone purchase)
- 2.Launch once—model downloads automatically
- 3.Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts → Enable Global Dictation
- 4.Grant Accessibility permission when prompted
- 5.Hold Fn anywhere and start talking
Close the Gap
Universal Purchase: $4.99 once for iPhone and Mac. No subscriptions. No per-minute charges. Just talk.
Download on the App Store - $4.99Fn key dictation · Lock screen widget · 100+ languages · 100% offline · One-time purchase
Related
Deep dive on Mac features: Fn dictation, streaming transcription, custom vocabulary, processing speeds
Complete iOS guide: Live Activity, bulk export, folder organization, share sheet integration
Head-to-head comparison: Whisper Notes vs MacWhisper, Otter.ai, SuperWhisper, and cloud alternatives