Mac dictation
AI dictation that writes where your cursor is
Tap fn, speak naturally, and get clean text in Mail, Slack, Notes, your browser, editor, terminal, or any other Mac app.
What is ListenIn?
ListenIn is a system-wide AI dictation app for Mac. Apple’s speech engine recognizes your voice, then ListenIn can remove fillers, resolve corrections, format the result, and insert it at the text cursor.
How does Mac voice typing work?
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Tap your chosen trigger key. The default is fn.
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Speak naturally, including pauses, corrections, and mixed Chinese-English terms.
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Tap again. ListenIn cleans the transcript and inserts it at your current cursor.
The short version
- Works in
- Any Mac app with a text cursor
- Trigger
- fn by default; configurable in Settings
- Requires
- macOS 14 or later; Apple Silicon and Intel
- Free plan
- 8,000 AI-cleaned words per week; no account
- Audio path
- Apple speech recognition; audio never reaches ListenIn’s cleanup service
What does system-wide dictation mean?
ListenIn is a menu-bar app, not a separate writing window. Put the cursor in Mail, Slack, Notes, a browser, an editor, or a terminal, then dictate there.
If automatic insertion is unsafe or the focused app changes during cleanup, ListenIn shows a copy card instead of pasting blindly.
How is it different from Apple Dictation?
ListenIn uses Apple’s speech engine for recognition, then adds a controllable cleanup step. Verbatim mode keeps every word and adds punctuation. Standard resolves fillers and false starts. Refined folds repeats into text that is ready to send.
This is a workflow difference, not a claim that one recognition engine beats another: Apple handles speech recognition; ListenIn handles what happens to the recognized text next.
What happens if the internet drops?
The raw transcript can still land because recognition runs through Apple’s speech engine. Cloud cleanup needs a connection; local Ollama cleanup does not.
ListenIn labels degraded or fallback output instead of silently presenting it as a normal cleaned result.
How does insertion protect my text?
Before inserting, ListenIn snapshots your clipboard and restores it afterward. Password fields and secure input are guarded: when it should not paste, it gives you a copy card.
Long dictations also keep a temporary local recovery draft while the session is active, so an interrupted session can be recovered after relaunch.
Mac dictation questions
Is ListenIn a Mac voice-to-text app?
Yes. It is a system-wide macOS dictation app that turns speech into text at your current cursor, with optional AI cleanup.
Can I use it without an account?
Yes. The free plan includes 8,000 AI-cleaned words per week and does not require an account.
Does it support Intel Macs?
Yes. The current Mac build is universal and supports Apple Silicon and Intel on macOS 14 or later.
Can raw dictation work offline?
Yes. Recognition uses Apple’s speech engine, so raw transcription can still work without ListenIn’s cloud cleanup. Local Ollama is available for offline cleanup.
Try it in the app you already use
Download ListenIn for macOS 14 or later. The free plan starts without a card or account.