Introduction

VoiceHotkey is a macOS menu-bar app: a global hotkey turns speech into text for supported text fields. You can also use voice commands (hotkeys, system control, and Shortcuts) and voice translation.

How it works

1. Press or hold the hotkey
   Voice typing defaults to Right Command; voice command defaults to Middle mouse button. Tap to toggle recording; hold to talk and release to finish.

2. Speak naturally
   Your recognition engine transcribes speech. Optional polish, word replacements, and smart spacing process the result.

3. Release to type
   Text is inserted at the focused field. You can also choose other output actions.

What you can do

Voice typing

System-wide voice typing with Apple, Doubao, on-device engines (Qwen3-ASR, Whisper, MOSS, FireRed, Parakeet), and cloud ASR. Choose a translation engine explicitly: Apple native translation needs macOS 26+ and language resources; LLM translation is another option. Failures keep the original without switching engines.

Text cleanup

Smart spacing, word replacements, and optional cloud / local LLM polish. Eligible repeated phrases can skip LLM requests through a local fast path; “0ms” is not measured total latency.

Commands

User dictionary or optional Trial / Pro intent model → hotkeys, text, open targets, Shortcuts, and system control; deeplinks for launchers.

Privacy controls

BYOK keys on your Mac; Local Only Mode restricts ASR / LLM to on-device or loopback and pauses updates. License requests can still use the network.

Next steps

Install & permissionsDownload, install path, microphone and Accessibility.

First-time setupCheck permissions, pick an engine, confirm shortcuts, and try typing.

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