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Show HN: OpenWhisper – free, local, and private voice-to-text macOS app

37 points by rwu1997 7mo ago

I wanted a voice-to-text app but didn't trust any of the proprietary ones with my privacy. So I decided to see if I could vibe code it with 0 macOS app & Swift experience. It uses a local binary of whisper.cpp (a fast implementation of OpenAI's Whisper voice-to-text model in C++). Github: https://github.com/richardwu/openwhisper https://github.com/richardwu/openwhisper I also decided to take this as an opportunity to compare 3 agentic coding harnesses: Cursor w/ Opus 4.6: - Best one-shot UI by far - Didn't get permissioning correct - Had issues making the "Cancel recording" hotkey being turned on all the time Claude Code w/ Opus 4.6: - Fewest turns to get main functionality right (recording, hotkeys, permissions) - Was able to get a decent UI with a few more turns Codex App w/ Codex 5.3 Extra-High: - Worst one-shot UI - None of the functionality worked without multiple subsequent prompts

umtksa 7mo ago
the video on github is not working
dcsan 7mo ago
how does it compare to wispr flow? which beats the pants off android or iphone transcription...
zenapollo 7mo ago
I thought i had tried this but no it’s a massively crowded app name. I’ll check this out soon, but honestly this one has been great. https://github.com/Starmel/OpenSuperWhisper https://github.com/Starmel/OpenSuperWhisper Though it seems like the dev stopped work on it
stavros 7mo ago
I really like https://handy.computer https://handy.computer for this.
- whinvik 7mo ago
  Another vote for handy. I am using with Parakeet and its pretty good. Now its mostly about models getting better.
  - aanet 7mo ago
    Thanks for the Handy info. (New to me) Haven’t used Parakeet, but noting it too. Commenting here so I come back to it.
- venusenvy47 7mo ago
  I'm looking for something to transcribe .m4a recordings that I make for my genealogy efforts. Do you know of anything that can take a file as input?
  - purrcat259 7mo ago
    If you're familiar with CLI you could use ffmpeg to extract audio then pipe the audio into whatever transcriber
    - venusenvy47 7mo ago
      I use ffmpeg a lot, but I'm curious if anyone can recommend a transcribe tool.
  - stavros 7mo ago
    Whisper.cpp will do it, and you can also use Parakeet v2, though I haven't tried running that one specifically.
eduction 7mo ago
Requiring microphone access is a dealbreaker. I transcribe audio files I’ve recorded on other equipment. You don’t need my mic for that. I clicked hoping it would leverage whisper’s translation capabilities as well, since MacWhisper does not do that (it leverages Apple’s subpar built in translation). It doesn’t do that either. (Maybe you’re using this for dictation? That’s a very specific subset of transcription. I’d suggest using a name that leans into that.)
kristianp 7mo ago
MacWhisper has been around for a while and it says no data leaves your machine. https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper
PhilippGille 7mo ago
That's a very similar name as https://github.com/OpenWhispr/openwhispr https://github.com/OpenWhispr/openwhispr Which is a voice to text app as well.
podlp 7mo ago
Pretty nice to have menu bar integration. For macOS 26+, why not use the already-installed on-device speech transcription models?
- rwu1997 7mo ago
  I didn’t realize this was a thing: will try it out :)

37 points by rwu1997 7mo ago

umtksa 7mo ago

the video on github is not working

dcsan 7mo ago

how does it compare to wispr flow? which beats the pants off android or iphone transcription...

zenapollo 7mo ago

I thought i had tried this but no it’s a massively crowded app name. I’ll check this out soon, but honestly this one has been great. https://github.com/Starmel/OpenSuperWhisper https://github.com/Starmel/OpenSuperWhisper Though it seems like the dev stopped work on it

stavros 7mo ago

I really like https://handy.computer https://handy.computer for this.

whinvik 7mo ago
Another vote for handy. I am using with Parakeet and its pretty good. Now its mostly about models getting better.
- aanet 7mo ago
  Thanks for the Handy info. (New to me) Haven’t used Parakeet, but noting it too. Commenting here so I come back to it.
venusenvy47 7mo ago
I'm looking for something to transcribe .m4a recordings that I make for my genealogy efforts. Do you know of anything that can take a file as input?
- purrcat259 7mo ago
  If you're familiar with CLI you could use ffmpeg to extract audio then pipe the audio into whatever transcriber
  - venusenvy47 7mo ago
    I use ffmpeg a lot, but I'm curious if anyone can recommend a transcribe tool.
- stavros 7mo ago
  Whisper.cpp will do it, and you can also use Parakeet v2, though I haven't tried running that one specifically.

eduction 7mo ago

Requiring microphone access is a dealbreaker. I transcribe audio files I’ve recorded on other equipment. You don’t need my mic for that. I clicked hoping it would leverage whisper’s translation capabilities as well, since MacWhisper does not do that (it leverages Apple’s subpar built in translation). It doesn’t do that either. (Maybe you’re using this for dictation? That’s a very specific subset of transcription. I’d suggest using a name that leans into that.)

kristianp 7mo ago

MacWhisper has been around for a while and it says no data leaves your machine. https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper

PhilippGille 7mo ago

That's a very similar name as https://github.com/OpenWhispr/openwhispr https://github.com/OpenWhispr/openwhispr Which is a voice to text app as well.

podlp 7mo ago

Pretty nice to have menu bar integration. For macOS 26+, why not use the already-installed on-device speech transcription models?

rwu1997 7mo ago
I didn’t realize this was a thing: will try it out :)