Phantom Voice
Local push-to-talk dictation for Mac
Start new thread

Phantom Voice - Local push-to-talk dictation for Mac

by•
Push-to-talk dictation that inserts in place: hold fn, speak, release, and the text appears in the app your cursor is already in. Transcription runs locally with whisper.cpp + Metal, so your audio never leaves the Mac. An optional on-device cleanup pass strips filler words and fixes punctuation. Most dictation apps show you a recording dot or a generic soundwave. This one has hand-animated indicators. $10 once, no subscription. MIT source. macOS 14+, Apple silicon.

Add a comment

Replies

Best
Maker
📌
Yo, I write code all day and wanted dictation that could keep up with the words developers actually use. Hold fn, speak, release. The finished text appears in whatever app your cursor is already in — editor, terminal, Slack, a commit message. Transcription is local whisper.cpp with Metal, so your audio never leaves the Mac. The part I spent far too long on: every dictation app shows you a recording dot or a soundwave, and you look at that thing several times an hour. So I drew proper animated ones instead. Two ship with the app; three more are $3 each and purely cosmetic — they change nothing but what you look at while you talk. There's also an optional local cleanup pass: a small on-device LLM that strips filler words and fixes punctuation without changing your meaning. Off by default. Honest limits — macOS 14+, Apple silicon only, English only, and the first launch downloads a ~1.5GB model. $10 once, no subscription, 14-day trial with no card. The source is MIT at github.com/WillisLiao/Phantom-Voice, because "your audio stays local" isn't worth much if you have to take my word for it. Solo developer, first paid app. I'd genuinely like the feedback — including the unflattering kind.

I've lost count of how times I've opened a diction app, waited for it to connect, and forgetten what I wanted to say.This push-to-talk workflow feels so much more natural. Great work!

Maker

 thank you so much for the comment, you should download it on the site try it out, I promise you you won't be disappointed, you can also give me feedback of anything, including the price!

Maker

Guys let me know if the indicator designs are anygood, or are there any improvements I can make with the app

Maker

Yo guys forgot to mention the app is free to donwload now on the site with 14 days of free trial, no card and comes with the white wave and retro fox indicators. Guys go download it test it and let me know what you think! this is an app that I use myself in my daily work, when I first made the dication app, I just used it to keep working on the designs with codex and claude, so it would definitely benifit yall!