Speak. Your words appear where you type.
Click the floating microphone, speak naturally, and click again. Lokál transcribes on your Mac and returns the text to your original cursor—without an account, cloud transcription, or stored history.
Requires macOS 26 or later · Microphone and Accessibility permissions
Ready wherever you type
Place your cursor in a text field, then start from Lokál’s floating microphone or menu-bar icon. The compact control stays available without adding another document window to your workflow.
Highlights
- One-click start and stop
- Floating control and menu-bar access
- Works in the Mac apps where you already write
- Optional start at login
Clear feedback while you speak
Lokál shows what is happening at every step: a microphone when it is ready, a responsive waveform while you speak, and a processing state while the transcription finishes.
Highlights
- Live microphone-responsive waveform
- Simple ready, recording, and processing states
- Apple SpeechAnalyzer and SpeechTranscriber
- Audio and text stay on your Mac
Text returns to your cursor
When transcription finishes, Lokál places the words in the application that was active when you began. A green checkmark confirms that the text has been inserted.
Highlights
- Returns text to the original app
- Direct insertion with Accessibility permission
- Temporary clipboard fallback when needed
- Clipboard text is cleared after fallback insertion
Technical specifications.
PLATFORM
- macOS 26 or later
TECHNOLOGY
- SpeechAnalyzer
- SpeechTranscriber
- Accessibility API
PRIVACY
- On-device transcription
- No account
- No tracking or stored history
ACCESS
- Completely free
- No subscription
- Mac App Store
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Does Lokál send my voice or text to the cloud?
No. Lokál uses Apple’s on-device speech technology. It does not upload recordings, send dictated text to an external transcription service, or store a dictation history.
What macOS version is required?
Lokál 2.0 requires macOS 26 or later.
How does text insertion work?
Lokál returns dictated text to the application that was active when recording began. Accessibility permission enables direct insertion. When that is unavailable, Lokál uses a temporary clipboard paste fallback and clears the dictated text afterward.
Does Lokál save recordings or transcripts?
No. Lokál does not keep saved recordings or a transcript history, and it has no analytics, advertising, or tracking.
Is Lokál free?
Yes. Lokál is completely free. There is no purchase, subscription, usage allowance, or account.
What permissions does Lokál need?
Lokál needs microphone permission for dictation. Accessibility permission enables direct text insertion at your cursor. Starting Lokál at login is optional and only enabled with your permission.
How Lokál was built
Technical notes behind the app.
The product pages show what shipped. These guides and case studies document the architecture patterns, privacy decisions, and SwiftUI implementation details behind apps like Lokál.
Private dictation, right where you type
A focused floating microphone and private on-device transcription—completely free, with no account or subscription.
Download on Mac App StoreFree · macOS 26 or later