SETUP GUIDE

How to set up offline dictation on your Mac

Install YappYapp, allow the microphone and Accessibility, download one speech model, then press option+space in any app and talk. Once the model is on your Mac, dictation works without an internet connection and without an account.

LAST UPDATED 2026-10-30 · Matches YappYapp 0.4.1

You need a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 14 or newer. YappYapp is free and open source.

Install YappYapp

Get the DMG from the download page, open it, drag YappYapp into Applications, then double-click it. The app is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS asks once whether to open an app downloaded from the internet: click Open. With Homebrew, run brew install --cask migueltorrezd/tap/yappyapp instead. YappYapp lives in the menu bar, not the Dock, and opens a guided setup the first time. Updating from 0.3.x? macOS asks for the microphone and Accessibility again, once, because 0.4.0 changed how the app is signed.

Allow the microphone

The guided setup asks for Microphone access so YappYapp can hear you. Click Allow in the macOS prompt. If you clicked Don't Allow, turn YappYapp on in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone; the app picks up the change without a restart. Your audio is transcribed on your Mac.

Allow Accessibility, so it can paste

Accessibility is the macOS permission that lets YappYapp paste the text where your cursor is, in any app. Turn YappYapp on in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. Without it, YappYapp still transcribes and leaves the text on the clipboard for you to paste with ⌘ + V.

Pick a speech model

In the guided setup, DETECT BEST MODELS reads your chip, memory and free space and proposes a model; nothing downloads until you click USE THESE. New installs start on Parakeet Ultra, about 630 MB, downloaded once and checked before first use. You can switch later in the MODELS tab, where SCAN MY MAC runs the same check. The table below compares the main choices.

Learn the shortcut: `option+space`

option+space starts recording from any app, and pressing it again stops. esc cancels a recording. To hold the keys while you talk instead, or to use a single key such as Right Option or Fn, go to SETUP > DICTATION.

Do your first dictation

Click into any text field, for example a new note. Press option+space, say a sentence, and press the shortcut again. The text appears at your cursor, and the small indicator turns green only when it landed. If nothing shows up, go to troubleshooting below; the text is kept in HISTORY either way.

Add your own words in the WORDS tab

Add names, products and acronyms once and YappYapp spells them your way: say "yap yap", get YappYapp. Snippets in the same tab expand a short phrase into a longer text, so "my email" can paste your address. When you retype a name right after a dictation, YappYapp learns your spelling and shows UNDO; you can turn that off in SETUP > DICTATION.

Optional: a pixel pet sits on the recording indicator and grows with the words you dictate. There are 15 to collect, Clawd included, and you can turn the pet off entirely.

Which model should you pick?

Every model runs on your Mac; the size is a one-time download. If you are not sure, keep Parakeet Ultra. For measured speed and accuracy on a Mac, read Whisper vs Parakeet on a Mac.

Parakeet~630 MB

Parakeet Ultra (default)

Languages: 25 European languages, detected automatically
Pick it when: You dictate in English, French, Spanish or another European language. The most accurate Parakeet.

Parakeet~465 MB

Parakeet TDT v2

Languages: English only
Pick it when: You only ever dictate in English.

Whisper~1.6 GB

Large v3 Turbo

Languages: Many languages
Pick it when: You speak a language Parakeet does not cover, or you want Whisper's built-in translation to English.

Whisper~490 / 150 / 78 MB

Small, Base or Tiny

Languages: Many languages
Pick it when: Disk space or memory is tight. Smaller means less accurate.

Qwen3-ASR~1 GB / ~2.5 GB

0.6B or 1.7B

Languages: 52 languages and dialects, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi
Pick it when: You dictate in a language Parakeet does not cover. The 1.7B is more accurate and suits a recent Mac.

The MODELS tab also lists Parakeet TDT v3, Parakeet 110M, Parakeet Japanese, Whisper Medium and Large v3, and English-only Whisper sizes.

Troubleshooting

macOS blocks the app or says it is damaged

Version 0.4.0 and later only ask once, and you click Open. A "damaged" or "cannot be opened" message usually means an older 0.3.x copy or a build from another source; get the current DMG from the download page. For a build that is not notarized, macOS 15 and 26 use System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway, and macOS 14 uses right-click > Open. You never need to turn off Gatekeeper or run commands to remove the quarantine flag.

It records, but no text appears

Check that YappYapp is on in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. After an update from 0.3.x, an old YappYapp entry can stay in that list: remove it with the minus button, then turn the new one on. Your text is not lost: it is in HISTORY and on the clipboard.

The microphone hears nothing

Check that YappYapp is on in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone. Then open SETUP > MICROPHONE in YappYapp, choose the input you actually use (a headset or an external mic, for example) and run MIC CHECK.

Installed with Homebrew and macOS still asks

Homebrew keeps the macOS download flag, so you see the same one-time question as with the DMG: click Open. If you installed from the old tap, switch once with brew untap matd97/tap, then install again with the command from step 1. YappYapp updates itself, so you do not need brew upgrade.

Still stuck: copy the support report

In YappYapp, open SETUP > HELP and click Copy support report. It lists versions, settings and permission status, never your audio, transcripts or words. Read it, then paste it into a GitHub issue.

Optional settings

Each of these is a switch in SETUP, with its trade-off written next to it.

Instant start

Keeps the mic open and holds the last 1.5 seconds in memory, so your first word is never cut off. The macOS orange mic dot stays on. Off by default, under SETUP > SPEED.

Cleanup modes

Clean, Email, List and Notes tidy your words with a small local model (about 1.1 GB, downloaded only when you pick a mode). If a rewrite looks wrong, you get your raw words instead.

Keep the model loaded

Holds the speech model in memory so a dictation does not wait for it to load. It uses memory while idle. On by default.

Quiet voice boost

Raises a quiet voice to the level the model expects, for dictating at low volume in a shared room. On by default, under SETUP > MICROPHONE.

Want to go further?

The guides walk through prompts, long dictation, privacy and how YappYapp compares, one step at a time.

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