Frequently asked questions

What is Presspeech?

Free MIT-licensed push-to-talk dictation with separate macOS and Windows apps. Hold a hotkey, speak, release, and text is pasted at the cursor.

Do upgrades preserve settings and permissions?

macOS: Saved preferences and local dictionary rules migrate to the current Presspeech identity automatically. Because macOS ties privacy grants to the bundle identity, that identity-changing upgrade requires one fresh grant for Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring. Windows: Installing a newer prerelease over the existing app keeps settings in the current user profile.

Does audio leave my computer?

No. Neither app sends dictation audio to a transcription service. Model files download from Hugging Face during setup, but transcription runs locally and captured audio is discarded from memory after processing.

Which computers are supported?

macOS: Apple Silicon with macOS 14 Sonoma or later; Intel Macs are not supported. Windows: A 64-bit x64 PC with Windows 11 is recommended. Presspeech remains compatible with Windows 10 x64, but Microsoft has ended general Windows 10 support; use Extended Security Updates or an edition that remains supported. Windows on Arm is not supported.

How do I install it?

macOS: Download the notarised Presspeech.zip, or use brew install --cask rcourtman/presspeech/presspeech. Windows: Follow the download and SHA-256 verification steps before running the currently unsigned installer.

What model does it use?

macOS: FluidAudio with multilingual Parakeet TDT v3 CoreML on the Apple Neural Engine. Windows: Fresh PCs with usable NVIDIA CUDA select multilingual Parakeet TDT v3; CPU-only PCs select the smaller English-only Whisper base.en model. Other local Windows models remain selectable.

Is it a file transcription app?

No. Presspeech is focused on live push-to-talk dictation into the app you are already using.

Does it keep a history?

macOS: The default is the last five transcripts in memory; the setting can keep none, one, or five, and everything clears on quit. Windows: There is no transcript history. Neither app writes transcript text to logs.

What permissions are required?

macOS: Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring. Setup Checklist tracks each grant. Windows: Turn on Microphone access and Let desktop apps access your microphone; Windows does not provide a separate Presspeech toggle for an unpackaged desktop app.

How do updates work?

Both apps can read public GitHub release metadata without sending a version, device, or user identifier. The macOS app checks every six hours and the Windows app daily when automatic checks are enabled. Nothing downloads or installs without approval; Windows also verifies the installer size and SHA-256 before offering to run it.

Can I change the hotkey?

Yes. macOS: Choose a right-side modifier or supported F-key; the recorder previews the key before saving it, and Apple keyboards may require Fn for an F-key. Right Option is the default. Windows: Choose a left/right modifier or F8–F12; Right Alt is the default, but an AltGr keyboard layout should use F8 or another key.

Does it support voice shortcuts and formatting commands?

Yes. Both apps map spoken phrases to exact replacement text with deterministic local Dictionary & Shortcuts rules. On macOS, the optional spoken-formatting pass also handles commands such as “new paragraph”, “bullet point”, “comma”, and “open quote”. With the Language Hint set to French, it instead recognizes French line, paragraph, punctuation, quote, and parenthesis phrases such as “nouvelle ligne”, “nouveau paragraphe”, “virgule”, and “guillemet ouvrant”. Auto-detect and other language hints retain the English command set so short French words such as “point” are not rewritten accidentally.

Does Dictionary & Shortcuts teach the speech model?

No. Dictionary rules run after local transcription and replace the exact saved mishearing or spoken phrase. They do not bias the decoder or learn related spellings and grammatical forms, so add a separate rule for each distinct output that needs correction. Rules stay local; macOS can also export, import, or keep them in a user-chosen sync file.

How do I test my first dictation?

Use Try Dictation after setup reports that the model is ready. The focused private scratchpad lets you test the hotkey and paste flow without switching to another app. See the first-dictation guide for both platforms.

Why was the transcript copied instead of pasted?

Presspeech fails closed when it cannot verify the same destination it captured at the start. If macOS says Copied — press ⌘V to paste or Windows says Transcript copied, not pasted, return to the intended field and paste manually instead of dictating again. Causes include a focus change, unavailable focused-window information, and—on Windows—a target running as administrator. The Mac and Windows recovery steps explain the platform details.

Can a clipboard service retain transcripts?

Yes. Presspeech does not sync transcripts itself, but its normal delivery writes finished text to the system clipboard. macOS Universal Clipboard, Windows clipboard history and cross-device sync, or a third-party clipboard manager can retain or sync clipboard entries when enabled. Review the clipboard privacy boundary before sensitive dictation.

Why does first launch take time?

Each app must download and prepare a local speech model before the first dictation. The macOS cache is about 500–600 MB. A fresh Windows install downloads about 2.5 GB for CUDA Parakeet or about 141 MiB for CPU Whisper. Later launches reuse the cache.

What is in diagnostics?

macOS Copy/Save Diagnostics and Windows Copy Diagnostics create privacy-safe reports with app, model, microphone, settings, update, and bounded log state. They omit transcript text, audio, and dictionary contents.

Which speech model should I use?

macOS: Use the built-in Parakeet TDT v3 model; there is no model switcher. Windows: Keep the automatically selected Parakeet CUDA or Whisper CPU default unless another selectable local model is a better fit for your language, accuracy, speed, or hardware.

How does it compare to other dictation apps?

The compare section has a side-by-side macOS table, a Windows decision guide, and focused pages for Handy and other adjacent tools. Short version: Presspeech is the small fixed-pipeline option; built-in Windows tools, Handy, and cloud services each make different privacy and workflow tradeoffs.