Get started

A Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 26 or later. The iPhone app pairs with the Mac later; you don’t need it to start.

With Homebrew:

Or install the talkie command and the app together:

Or download the app and drag it to Applications.

Setup asks for one permission, the microphone. The rest wait until a feature needs them. Dictating into other apps asks for TalkieAgent’s microphone and Accessibility the first time you use it. Screen capture asks when you take your first screenshot or run a workflow that reads the screen.

Setup downloads Parakeet v3, a speech model that runs on your Mac. From then on, transcription happens locally, with no account and no key. Parakeet v3 understands 25 languages. You can switch models in Settings › Models.

Put the cursor where you want the words, press ⌥⌘T and talk, then press it again. The text lands in that field, whether it’s Claude Code, Slack, or Mail.

To hold a key instead, turn on push-to-talk in Settings › Dictation and hold Right ⌃ while you talk. Say covers the rest.

In Talkie, click Record or press R. The memo lands in the Library already transcribed, beside your dictations, where you can search it or hand it to an agent.

⌥⌘T

Start dictating; press again to transcribe and paste

Right ⌃

Hold to dictate, once push-to-talk is on

Right ⌃ Right ⌃

Double-tap to keep dictating hands-free; tap again to stop

⌘ ⌘

Double-tap left ⌘ to open the capture HUD on screenshots

⌥ ⌥

Double-tap left ⌥ to open the agent voice panel

⌥⌘V

Paste a queued transcription

⌥⌘E

Send the selected text to Compose

⌥⌘Y

Read the selected text aloud

Change any of them in Talkie’s settings.

If something doesn’t work, the talkie command can tell you what’s missing: the app, a permission, or a service that isn’t running.