LocalFlow Lite
Private dictation, on your Mac.
Hold a key, say it, press ⌘ V. LocalFlow Lite turns your voice into text on your Mac, and your voice never leaves it.
- Audio stays on your Mac
- Works offline
- No account
For Apple silicon Macs on macOS 26 or later. English. No word or daily limits; one recording runs up to 3 minutes.
Hold. Speak. Paste.
LocalFlow Lite lives in your menu bar. Your words are copied when you let go, so you decide where they land.
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Hold the key and talk
Hold Fn (🌐), or Option + Space, and speak. A slim bar slides out under the notch while it listens.
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Let go
Your words are turned into text on your Mac and copied to the clipboard. A small note says “Copied, press ⌘V”.
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Press ⌘V
Paste wherever you want the text: a message, a note, a document, a search box.
- Pick your keyChoose another hold-to-talk key from the menu bar icon.
- ShortcutsAdds a “Dictate” action, so you can speak into any shortcut.
- FastThe text is ready a moment after you let go.
- Out of the wayA menu bar icon. You can also keep it in the Dock.
Two permissions, and a one-time download
macOS asks before any app can hear you. Nothing is requested until you click its button.
- MicrophoneTo hear you while you hold the key. Audio stays on your Mac.
- Input Monitoring (only for the Fn and Option-Command keys)Only to see that the key is held down. It never reads what you type. Option + Space needs only the microphone.
- Speech modelDownloaded once, the first time you open the app (about 450 MB). After that it works offline.
What you say stays on your Mac
Speech recognition runs on your Mac. No account, no analytics, no tracking.
Your audio never leaves
Your voice is turned into text on your Mac and is not uploaded or saved.
Text is not kept
The words go to the clipboard once, when you let go. The app forgets them.
Works offline
After the one-time model download, it needs no internet to dictate.
No account
No sign-up, no email, no profile. Open it and start talking.
The only internet use is the one-time speech model download from Hugging Face (huggingface.co); like any website, it sees the request and your IP address. If that model cannot be used, macOS may download Apple’s own on-device speech asset instead. No audio or text is part of either download. Every detail is on the privacy page.
Lite copies. You paste.
Apps from the Mac App Store aren’t allowed to paste into other apps for you. So Lite copies your words, and you press ⌘V. The full version from this website pastes for you automatically.
Good to know
Does it need the internet?
Only once, to download the speech model. After that, dictation works with no connection.
Does it hear me all the time?
No. It listens only while you hold the hold-to-talk key (or while a Shortcuts “Dictate” action runs). The listening bar under the notch shows when it is on.
Why does it ask for Input Monitoring?
Only so it can tell that the Fn (or Option-Command) key is held. It does not read, record or store what you type, and it does not control other apps. If you would rather not allow it, use Option + Space, which needs only the microphone.
Holding Fn opens the emoji picker or dictation. What do I do?
In System Settings, Keyboard, set “Press 🌐 key to” to Do Nothing. Or use Option + Space, which needs no setting. An external keyboard may have no Fn key, so use Option + Space there.
I cannot see the menu bar icon.
A full menu bar, or the notch, can hide it. Open LocalFlow Lite again from Applications and its window comes back, where you can also keep it in the Dock.
Which languages and which Macs?
English. Apple silicon Macs (M1 and later) running macOS 26 or later.
How do I uninstall it?
Choose Uninstall LocalFlow Lite… from the menu bar icon, then drag the app to the Trash. The steps, and how to do it by hand, are on the support page.
Where do my words go?
To the clipboard, once, when you let go of the key. Press ⌘ V to paste them. The app never reads the clipboard.
Hold. Speak. Paste.
Dictation that runs on your Mac and stays there.
Need help? Support or [email protected].