Speak Easy Privately
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Quick answers for the Full and Lite editions of Speak Easy Privately on macOS.

Getting started

  1. Open Speak Easy Privately and complete the first-run checklist.
  2. Allow microphone access so the app can hear you while recording.
  3. In Lite, download the required Parakeet speech model. The full edition includes it.
  4. Place the cursor in a text field and use your configured shortcut, or choose Start Dictation from the app menu.
No always-on microphone. Audio capture begins only when you start a dictation and ends when you stop. Everything is processed locally, and you can disconnect from the internet after Lite finishes any model downloads you choose.

macOS permissions

Microphone

The microphone stays off between dictations. It opens only after you explicitly start recording and closes when you stop; Speak Easy Privately does not capture microphone audio in the background.

Keyboard Shortcut / Input Monitoring

Lets the app observe only your configured global shortcut while another app is active.

Automatic Paste

Optional. It lets Speak Easy Privately paste the finished text into the active field. Without it, the result remains available for manual paste.

If macOS asks you to quit and reopen the app after granting a permission, follow that system prompt once so the new decision can take effect.

For a plain-language explanation of the system-enforced macOS App Sandbox and permission boundaries, read Security by design.

Local speech and writing models

Full includes the approved local model set and works offline from first launch.

Lite is a smaller download. Its Speech Models tab shows progress, lets you stop or retry downloads, and marks each verified model Ready when installation finishes.

Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 is the supported speech-recognition model. Optional SAGE and Qwen models can improve punctuation and capitalization without sending text to a server.

Using dictation

  • Press and release the configured shortcut to start and stop recording.
  • Watch the floating waveform for recording and processing status.
  • Choose languages in Settings, including Automatic for mixed-language speech.
  • Keep Smart Local correction off for raw ASR output, or enable it for conservative local punctuation.
  • Local text history is optional and can be disabled or automatically deleted.

Troubleshooting

The shortcut does not respond

Open Settings → Permissions and confirm Keyboard Shortcut permission. Try a standard shortcut such as ⌘⇧D to separate Fn-key hardware behavior from permission setup.

Text is not pasted

Confirm Automatic Paste permission, then quit and reopen if macOS has just changed the setting. You can always paste the result manually.

Lite says a model is not ready

Open Speech Models, keep the Mac awake until download and verification complete, then confirm Parakeet shows Ready. A model activates only after its integrity check succeeds.

Contact support

Include your macOS version, Mac processor, app edition, and a short description of what happened. Never send private dictated text or audio.

Open the contact page

For information about data handling, read the Privacy Policy.