A minimal speech-to-text widget that works locally on your Mac. Activate with a shortcut, speak anywhere you'd normally type, and watch your words appear instantly. Perfect for AI chats, emails, and any text field.
Hey Product Hunt community! 👋
I'm thrilled to share Harker with you today. As someone who spends way too much time typing, I got frustrated with how slow my fingers were compared to my thoughts. And with all the AI conversations we're having these days, we're typing more than ever!
That's when I realized most speech-to-text tools send your data to the cloud, or interrupt your workflow.
Harker is different. Your voice never leaves your Mac, it launches instantly with a keyboard shortcut, and works in any text field. The interface stays hidden until you need it, then appears with a clean, minimal UI. Whether you're writing emails, chatting with AI, or taking notes, just hit the shortcut, speak, and your words appear exactly where you need them.
I initially developed Harker for myself, I've been using it for months now and honestly can't imagine going back to typing everything.
Would love to hear what you think and answer any questions! What would you use voice-to-text for in your daily workflow?
Thanks for checking it out!
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@mnlcpc Really appreciate the offline-only model. So many speech-to-text tools require cloud processing, which is a dealbreaker for sensitive work. Big respect for prioritizing local data privacy.
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The problem I notice with local AI / ML applications is they are processing pretty slow. Would be nice to see some benchmarks (not sure how to visualize that when benchmarking audio tho lol).
Nice launch tho, super nice product, was just recently looking for alternatives on subscription-based apps like Wispr Flow.
@mxmzb Totally fair. Local AI can feel slow depending on the setup and model size. Harker gives you the option to download and choose the model that best fits your machine, so you can get the right tradeoff between speed and accuracy.
For English-only models, even the smaller ones are surprisingly precise and very fast on M1 or M2. With no loading screens or cloud roundtrips.
Running everything locally also means no server costs, which lets me offer Harker as a one-time purchase. No subscriptions, the app is yours to use.
Benchmarking audio is tricky to show, but I’m thinking about adding a simple demo or side-by-side soon. Thanks for checking it out, and yes, it’s built as a simpler, privacy focused, and no-subscription alternative to more complex tools like Wispr Flow
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@mxmzb@mnlcpc you might want to take down your PH page with the launch discount code if you're not going to honor it.... PH50OFF is EXPIRED.
Hi @jep9 , sure the code is expired now, but was active DURING the launch :)
But if you want to try Harker, please send me a message
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As someone who constantly jumps between emails, docs, and chat apps, Harker is a game-changer. I love that it works anywhere on macOS and doesn’t get in the way.
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Have you thought about benchmarking this for accuracy against the built-in macOS voice recognition? That’s what I use today, and it’s built in and free, so that’s your basic competition.
Hey@jasonrdunn , very good point, thank you. I actually developed Harker first for myself exactly as a substitution for the Mac built-in speech-to-text. I wanted something running locally and that can be calles with a simple shortcut, and that automatically paste the output in the selected textfield.
It depends a bit on what is the language you want to transcribe and on which model you pick, but in general, being based on whisper, the accuracy is way higher compared to the Mac built-in tool.
If you end up trying, please let me know how it goes. Thanks
Thank you for introducing this minimal speech-to-text widget! 🎙️✨ It’s awesome to have a local solution on Mac that lets me dictate anywhere I’d normally type. 🚀 Whether it’s for AI chats, emails, or any text field, this will definitely boost productivity and make typing so much easier. 💻🗣️ Love the instant transcription and shortcut activation! Keep up the great work! 👏😊
Report
Just checked out Harker! 🚀 The idea of converting thoughts to text at speech speed is 🔥. The neural net must be using real-time ASR + NLP optimizations, maybe with a lightweight transformer model for low latency. The UI looks clean too - minimalist but functional. Excited to see the benchmarks!
Harker
@mnlcpc Really appreciate the offline-only model. So many speech-to-text tools require cloud processing, which is a dealbreaker for sensitive work. Big respect for prioritizing local data privacy.
The problem I notice with local AI / ML applications is they are processing pretty slow. Would be nice to see some benchmarks (not sure how to visualize that when benchmarking audio tho lol).
Nice launch tho, super nice product, was just recently looking for alternatives on subscription-based apps like Wispr Flow.
Harker
@mxmzb Totally fair. Local AI can feel slow depending on the setup and model size. Harker gives you the option to download and choose the model that best fits your machine, so you can get the right tradeoff between speed and accuracy.
For English-only models, even the smaller ones are surprisingly precise and very fast on M1 or M2. With no loading screens or cloud roundtrips.
Running everything locally also means no server costs, which lets me offer Harker as a one-time purchase.
No subscriptions, the app is yours to use.
Benchmarking audio is tricky to show, but I’m thinking about adding a simple demo or side-by-side soon.
Thanks for checking it out, and yes, it’s built as a simpler, privacy focused, and no-subscription alternative to more complex tools like Wispr Flow
@mxmzb @mnlcpc you might want to take down your PH page with the launch discount code if you're not going to honor it.... PH50OFF is EXPIRED.
Harker
Hi @jep9 , sure the code is expired now, but was active DURING the launch :)
But if you want to try Harker, please send me a message
As someone who constantly jumps between emails, docs, and chat apps, Harker is a game-changer. I love that it works anywhere on macOS and doesn’t get in the way.
Have you thought about benchmarking this for accuracy against the built-in macOS voice recognition? That’s what I use today, and it’s built in and free, so that’s your basic competition.
Harker
Hey@jasonrdunn , very good point, thank you.
I actually developed Harker first for myself exactly as a substitution for the Mac built-in speech-to-text. I wanted something running locally and that can be calles with a simple shortcut, and that automatically paste the output in the selected textfield.
It depends a bit on what is the language you want to transcribe and on which model you pick, but in general, being based on whisper, the accuracy is way higher compared to the Mac built-in tool.
If you end up trying, please let me know how it goes. Thanks
Pokecut
Thank you for introducing this minimal speech-to-text widget! 🎙️✨ It’s awesome to have a local solution on Mac that lets me dictate anywhere I’d normally type. 🚀 Whether it’s for AI chats, emails, or any text field, this will definitely boost productivity and make typing so much easier. 💻🗣️ Love the instant transcription and shortcut activation! Keep up the great work! 👏😊
Just checked out Harker! 🚀 The idea of converting thoughts to text at speech speed is 🔥. The neural net must be using real-time ASR + NLP optimizations, maybe with a lightweight transformer model for low latency. The UI looks clean too - minimalist but functional. Excited to see the benchmarks!
So, you are using local/offline SLM?
Harker
@manu_goel2 yes, the speech to text model is embedded in the app.
@mnlcpc love it ... that's tech put to right use
Harker
Thank you @manu_goel2 , appreciate it