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Academic Writing

Dictate your dissertation. Finish faster.

The average dissertation is 80,000+ words. At 40 WPM typing speed, that's 33 hours of raw keystroke time — and that's before revisions. Yaps lets you dictate at 150+ WPM, entirely on-device, so you can write your thesis, papers, and grant proposals at the speed of thought.

See how it works
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Words in the average dissertation

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On-device processing

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Data sent to the cloud

Dictate your thesis

Speak your arguments at 150+ WPM. Technical terms, proper nouns, and academic vocabulary handled with accuracy.

Dictation
Word — Chapter 5: Discussion.docx0 words
5.2 Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning
Done0 words captured
Research data stays on-device. Zero cloud processing.

Academic writing is painfully slow

Writer's block stalls progress for days — staring at a blank page while your deadline approaches
Typing 80,000+ words causes real physical strain — RSI, carpal tunnel, and chronic wrist pain
The gap between thinking and typing means you lose ideas before you can get them down
Cloud-based dictation tools raise serious concerns for unpublished research and proprietary data
Long writing sessions are mentally exhausting when every sentence requires manual keystroke effort
Alt-tabbing between your PDF sources and your Word document breaks your train of thought every few sentences

Dictation unlocks your thinking

Speaking your ideas aloud breaks through writer's block — you can always talk about your research
Dictation eliminates the physical toll of long writing sessions — your hands stay off the keyboard
At 150+ WPM, dictation captures your ideas as fast as you think them — no lag between thought and text
Yaps runs entirely on your Mac — unpublished findings, proprietary data, and research stay on-device
Speaking is cognitively lighter than typing — you can sustain longer, more productive writing sessions
Read your sources on screen and dictate your analysis simultaneously — no more losing your thread to alt-tab

Tools for serious writing

Built for the kind of sustained, high-volume writing that academic work demands.

Break Through Writer's Block

You can always talk about your research, even when you can't type it. Dictation turns your verbal thinking into text — speak through your argument, and refine the prose later. First drafts become effortless.

150+ WPM Capture Speed

Academic writing is idea-dense. At 150+ words per minute, Yaps keeps up with your thinking so you don't lose complex arguments mid-sentence. Dictate a 5,000-word chapter draft in about 30 minutes.

Research-Grade Privacy

Unpublished findings, participant data, IRB-sensitive material — none of it should touch a cloud server. Yaps processes all speech on your Mac. No audio uploaded, no transcripts stored remotely, no exceptions.

Studio Editor for Audio

Use Yaps Studio to generate audio from your written text. Paste a chapter, pick a voice, and listen to it read back with natural TTS. Hearing your prose aloud reveals awkward phrasing and structural issues that silent reading misses.

Searchable Voice Notes

Capture research ideas, methodology notes, and literature review thoughts as voice notes. Every recording is transcribed and fully searchable — find that insight from last Tuesday in seconds.

English Dictation

Yaps currently supports English for speech-to-text dictation, optimized for academic vocabulary, technical terms, and proper nouns. All processing happens on-device with no cloud dependency.

For every stage of the academic journey

Whether you're drafting a thesis or writing a grant, dictation accelerates your work.

01

PhD Students

Your dissertation is the longest thing you'll ever write. Dictation makes it manageable — speak your first drafts, revise on screen, and finish months earlier than your cohort.

I dictated 60,000 words of my dissertation in six weeks. It would have taken six months typing.

02

Research Scientists

Lab reports, methodology sections, literature reviews — the writing never stops. Dictate your findings while they're fresh and keep your research moving forward.

03

Grant Writers

Grant proposals demand persuasive, detailed writing under tight deadlines. Dictation lets you draft proposals faster and spend more time on the substance of your argument.

04

Professors and Lecturers

Publish or perish. Dictation helps you write journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers alongside your teaching load — without sacrificing evenings and weekends.

05

Master's Students

Your thesis is likely 15,000-30,000 words alongside coursework and a job. Dictation means you can draft sections during commutes, walks, or between classes.

06

Anyone Facing a Deadline

Conference submission in three days? Journal revision due next week? Dictation compresses your writing timeline dramatically when every hour counts.

Hear from people like you.

I was stuck on chapter three of my dissertation for two months. A colleague suggested I try dictating instead of typing. I downloaded Yaps, started speaking my arguments out loud, and wrote 4,000 words in a single afternoon. The privacy aspect was critical too — my research involves confidential participant data that I can't send to any cloud service.

AO

Amara Osei

PhD Candidate, Sociology

Write your thesis at the speed of thought.

80,000 words is a lot less daunting when you can speak them.

Requires macOS 13.0+ (Apple Silicon recommended)