Mumble

Talk to your Mac. It types back.
A tiny, completely free menu bar app that turns your voice into text — instantly.

Hold Fn → speak → release → text appears at your cursor.
Exactly the way you wanted it.

_{Signed & notarized · macOS 14+}

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Why Mumble?

Because typing is overrated. Mumble sits quietly in your menu bar and lets you dictate into any text field on macOS. It figures out where you are — Slack, email, iMessage, a Google Doc — and adjusts the tone to match.

Casual message to a friend? Mumble keeps it chill. Work email? Mumble cleans it up. You just talk.

Bring Your Own Provider

Mumble now supports multiple transcription providers and lets you choose the model you want per provider:

• Groq
• Fireworks AI
• ElevenLabs
• Deepgram
• AssemblyAI

If you want the easiest free setup, Groq is still a great default. Its free tier requires no credit card, and Mumble can also use a saved Groq key for optional Smart Formatting.

What You Get

• Push-to-talk with Fn — hold to record, release to transcribe. No clicking, no waiting.
• Instant text insertion — transcribed text drops right into whatever app you're using.
• 7-day recovery history — every completed transcription is kept locally for 7 days in a dedicated History tab so you can recover text if paste misses.
• Context-aware tone — Mumble detects the active app and adjusts formatting automatically.
• Provider and model choice — pick the transcription provider and model that fit your workflow.
• Zero clutter — lives in the menu bar, no Dock icon, no windows in your way.
• Guided setup — onboarding walks you through API key, permissions, and preferences.
• Custom dictionary — add vocabulary corrections so Mumble always spells your names, jargon, and brand terms the right way.
• Smart formatting — an optional Groq-backed LLM pass automatically structures your dictation based on the active app (email gets greeting/body/sign-off, messaging stays casual with emoji, code preserves technical terms, and everything else gets clean punctuation). Detected from the frontmost app's bundle ID and page title; toggleable in Settings.

Getting Started

Download

Grab the latest release from GitHub Releases — the app is signed and notarized, so you can run it straight away. Requires macOS 14+ (Sonoma) and at least one supported transcription provider API key. If you want Smart Formatting, save a Groq key as well.

The app will walk you through the rest.

Build from Source

For contributors or if you prefer to build locally — you'll need Xcode 15+ and at least one supported transcription provider API key.

brew install xcodegen          # one-time setup
cd /path/to/Mumble
xcodegen generate              # generate the Xcode project
open Mumble.xcodeproj          # Cmd+R to build and run

How It Works

    You speak        Mumble listens      Selected provider      Optional formatting    Text appears
  ┌──────────┐      ┌─────────────┐      ┌────────────────┐    ┌────────────────┐    ┌───────────┐
  │ Hold Fn  │ ──▶  │  Record mic │ ──▶  │ STT API + model│ ──▶│ Groq or local  │ ──▶│ At cursor │
  └──────────┘      └─────────────┘      └────────────────┘    │ context format │    └───────────┘
                                                                └────────────────┘
                                                                       ▲
                                                                ┌──────┴───────┐
                                                                │ Detect app:  │
                                                                │ email? chat? │
                                                                │ code? other? │
                                                                └──────────────┘

Under the hood: DictationManager orchestrates everything — shortcut monitoring, audio recording, provider-specific transcription, optional Groq-backed Smart Formatting, and text insertion via Accessibility APIs.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Fn key not working	System Settings > Keyboard > set "Press fn key to" → Do Nothing
No accessibility permission	System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility > enable Mumble
No microphone permission	System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone > enable Mumble
Text not inserting	Make sure a text field is focused in the target app before recording. If a paste still misses, open History in Settings and copy the saved transcription.

Rebuilt or moved the app? You may need to remove the old Accessibility entry and re-add it.

Known Limitations

• Fn key can conflict with certain macOS keyboard settings
• Browser URL detection doesn't work with all browsers
• Requires an internet connection (no offline fallback yet)
• Only Fn key is supported for now (custom hotkeys coming soon)

On the Roadmap

• Custom hotkey support
• Multi-language transcription
• Local Whisper model for offline use
• User-defined tone profiles

License

See LICENSE for details.