The Mac dictation app you actually want to use
Yaps is a native macOS dictation app built from scratch for the Mac. Hold Fn and speak — your words appear wherever your cursor is, in any app. Offline processing, auto-punctuation, and high-accuracy English dictation. No cloud required.
Speaking speed
Dictation language
On-device processing
Free tier
Works in every app
Mail, Notes, VS Code — wherever your cursor is, Yaps types for you.
Mac dictation falls short
Yaps fills the gap
How Yaps compares on Mac
A quick look at how Yaps stacks up against other Mac dictation options.
| Feature | Yaps | Apple Dictation |
|---|---|---|
| Offline Processing | Yes | Partial |
| Auto-Punctuation | Yes | Basic |
| Text-to-Speech | Yes | No |
| Voice Notes | Yes | No |
| Studio Editor | Yes | No |
| Voice Commands | Yes | No |
| Smart History | Yes | No |
| English Dictation | Yes | Yes |
| Price | From $0 | Free |
Apple Dictation is a fine starting point — it's free and always available. Yaps picks up where it leaves off, with better accuracy, full offline mode, and a complete voice toolkit.
What makes Yaps the best Mac dictation app
A native macOS experience with everything a dictation app should have — and more.
Hold Fn to Dictate
Press and hold the Fn key anywhere on your Mac. Speak naturally. Release when done. Your words appear right where your cursor is — zero setup, zero context switching.
Works in Every App
Mail, Notes, VS Code, Slack, Google Docs, your terminal, even your browser's address bar. Yaps injects text system-wide, wherever you can type.
Fully Offline
The entire speech recognition pipeline runs on your Mac. No internet needed, no cloud processing, no audio uploads. Works identically on a plane or at your desk.
Smart Auto-Punctuation
Yaps adds periods, commas, question marks, and paragraph breaks based on your speech patterns. You can also say punctuation out loud for full control.
English Dictation
Yaps currently supports English for speech-to-text dictation, optimized for accuracy with natural speech patterns, technical terms, and proper nouns. All processing happens locally on your device.
Complete Voice Toolkit
Beyond dictation: text-to-speech for proofreading, voice notes for capturing ideas, a studio editor for generating audio from text, and voice commands for hands-free control.
Built for how you work on Mac
Mac users who take their workflow seriously deserve a dictation app that keeps up.
Writers and Bloggers
Draft articles, blog posts, and book chapters at speaking speed. Many writers find dictation produces more natural, conversational prose.
I write 4,000 words a day now. My first drafts sound more like me because I'm actually speaking them.
”Developers
Dictate commit messages, code comments, documentation, and PR descriptions. Works perfectly in VS Code, Terminal, and every IDE.
Refactor the auth middleware to use the new token validation helper.
”Professionals
Get through your inbox in half the time. Speak your replies in Mail, Outlook, or any email client. Yaps handles formatting automatically.
Medical Professionals
Dictate patient notes and reports without worrying about sensitive data leaving your device. Privacy is built into the architecture, not added as an afterthought.
Students and Researchers
Capture lecture notes, research ideas, and paper drafts by voice. Faster than typing, easier on your hands, and all stored locally.
Content Creators
Script your videos, outline your podcasts, or draft social media posts by speaking. Then use TTS to hear them back before publishing.
Hear from people like you.
“I tried every dictation app on the Mac App Store. Most of them felt like web apps wearing a Mac costume. Yaps is the first one that actually feels native — the Fn shortcut, the instant response, the way it just works in every app. It's what Apple Dictation should have been.”
Sarah Kim
UX Designer
Learn more about Mac dictation
The best dictation for your Mac
Hold Fn. Speak. That's the whole setup.
Requires macOS 13.0+ (Apple Silicon recommended)