Skip to content

madebysan/wave-mac

Repository files navigation

Wave app icon

Wave

Local voice-to-text for your Mac.
Press a shortcut, speak, and the transcribed text appears wherever your cursor is – no cloud, no API keys, no subscriptions.

Version 0.4.0 · macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel

Download Wave

Also available for iOS

How it works

  1. Press Option+Space (or your custom shortcut)
  2. Speak – a floating preview shows your words in real time
  3. Press the shortcut again (or click the menu bar icon) to stop
  4. Your words are transcribed locally and pasted into the active app

Everything runs on-device using WhisperKit – no audio leaves your Mac.

Features

  • Real-time preview – A floating HUD shows confirmed and tentative text as you speak
  • Local transcription – Powered by OpenAI's Whisper model running on Apple Neural Engine via WhisperKit
  • Works in any app – Text is pasted wherever your cursor is (TextEdit, Notes, Slack, browser, etc.)
  • Push-to-talk mode – Hold the shortcut to record, release to transcribe (configurable alongside toggle mode)
  • Language auto-detection – Let Whisper identify the spoken language, or choose from 99 supported languages
  • Smart filler removal – Strips "um", "uh", stutters, and context-aware fillers like "basically" and "sort of" without breaking real words
  • Audio file import – Transcribe existing audio files (MP3, WAV, AIFF, OGG, FLAC) via the menu bar
  • Auto-punctuation – Whisper adds punctuation naturally
  • Transcription history – Review, search, and export past transcriptions
  • Configurable shortcut – Change the hotkey in Settings
  • Model selection – Choose between base, small, medium, or large Whisper models
  • Launch at login – Optional, runs quietly in the menu bar
  • Sound feedback – Audio cues when recording starts and stops
  • Silence auto-stop – Configurable timeout (30s to 10 min, or never)
  • Auto-mute playback – System audio is silenced while recording so YouTube, music, etc. don't interfere
  • Trailing word capture – A 1-second buffer after you stop ensures your last words aren't clipped

Install

  1. Download Wave.dmg from the latest release
  2. Open the DMG and drag Wave to Applications
  3. Launch from Applications
  4. Grant Microphone and Accessibility permissions when prompted
  5. The Whisper model (~460MB) downloads automatically on first launch

Permissions

Permission Why
Microphone Records your voice for transcription
Accessibility Pastes transcribed text into the active app via simulated Cmd+V

Tech stack

  • Swift + AppKit (native macOS menu bar app)
  • WhisperKit – Core ML-optimized Whisper inference
  • KeyboardShortcuts – Global hotkey management
  • No sandbox (required for Accessibility API + global hotkeys)

Feedback

Found a bug or have a feature idea? Open an issue.

License

MIT


Made by santiagoalonso.com

About

Local voice-to-text for macOS. Press a shortcut, speak, and the transcribed text appears wherever your cursor is.

Topics

Resources

License

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Packages

 
 
 

Contributors

Languages