Everything Dictera does.

Keep everyday tools in your notch. Speak anywhere you can type. Get help on any call. This is the whole list, one line per feature, in that order - the notch, then your voice, then the AI Assistant. Each line links to the page that explains it.

The notch

Everyday Mac tools at the top of your screen. Point at the notch and it opens, with everyday tools, a Home page of widgets, and the pages for dictation and the AI Assistant. Everything in the notch →

  • Point to open Point at the notch and it opens; move away and it closes. Turn off Hover to Open and a click opens it instead.
  • Open Notch, ⌥⌘I Opens it on the screen you're working on, at the page you used last. Press it again to close.
  • Never takes the focus Your cursor stays where it was, so a dictation, a pasted clip or a calculator result lands in the app you're using.
  • Pin Keeps the notch open wherever the pointer goes, until you unpin it.
  • Over full-screen apps It opens there too. Turn off Show Over Full-Screen Apps and it stays out of the way of full-screen videos, games and presentations.
  • Home & widgets Your dashboard: 29 widgets to choose from, Small or Medium. Drag them into order, and add or remove them with Edit Widgets.
  • On the lock screen Home's widgets appear under the clock whenever this Mac locks, and keep working. Widgets with private content, like Clipboard and Notifications, never do.
  • While it's closed A small strip around the notch shows what's going on - a dictation, a screen recording, a timer, the song in Music - one thing at a time. Point at it or click it for the details.
  • Cards Drop out of the notch when something needs a moment of your attention: the translation of the text you selected, the question before a meeting, a timer that has rung.
  • Other apps' notifications Once you turn it on, banners from your apps drop out of the notch instead of the corner of the screen, and the bell lists every one since Dictera started, the unread ones marked.
  • Alerts Charging, a full or low battery, AirPods connecting, Caps Lock, a drive plugged in - each for a few seconds, each with its own switch.
  • Volume and brightness The volume and brightness keys show their level in the notch instead of the macOS pop-up. Brightness changes the display the pointer is on: the built-in one and Apple displays, other monitors over their cable where they allow it, and any other by dimming it.
  • Drag it out Screenshots, screen recordings, clipboard clips and finished downloads drag off the notch into any app.
  • On any display On a display without a notch, such as an external monitor, Dictera draws a stand-in notch that shows the same strip. It opens on the display you're working on.
  • Or the Pill Prefer it smaller? The Pill shape floats just below the menu bar instead.
  • Top, bottom or anywhere Put the notch at the bottom of the screen, rising from the Dock, or anywhere you drag it, in Settings ▸ Notch ▸ Appearance ▸ Position.
  • Out of your screen share The notch is hidden from screen sharing by default, in apps that respect the window privacy setting in macOS. The eye in the notch is the switch.

25 everyday tools

Click a tool and it does its job; hold it for more. Each one links to its card on the notch page, with what it needs and whether it goes online. Dictate, Quick Controls, Chat, Meetings and the AI Assistant live in the notch too - they're under Dictation and the AI Assistant below.

  • Music What's playing in Apple Music, with its controls, and synced lyrics if you turn them on.
  • Recognize Song Find out what's playing around you, and add it to your Shazam library if you like.
  • Microphone Mute every microphone at once, so every app on a call hears silence.
  • Screenshot Capture part of the screen; hold for a window, the whole screen, text or a delay.
  • Screen Recording Record an area, a window or the whole screen; turn a short one into a GIF.
  • Color Picker Pick a colour from anywhere on the screen and copy it as HEX, RGB and more.
  • Camera Mirror A floating mirror of your camera, to see how you look before a call.
  • Timer Start a timer with a click and watch it count down on the notch.
  • Stopwatch A stopwatch on the notch: click to start or pause, hold to reset.
  • Reminders Your reminders from the Reminders app: tick one off, or add one by typing or saying it.
  • Clipboard Everything you copy, kept on this Mac once you turn it on; click a clip to paste it.
  • Calculator A scientific calculator that types its result into the app you're in.
  • Emoji Find an emoji by name and type it into the app you're in.
  • Weather The weather where you are: now, the hours ahead and the days ahead.
  • Wallpaper A new wallpaper in a click: Apple's still pictures, its colours or your own.
  • Apps The apps you keep in the notch, opened or brought to the front with a click.
  • Downloads Your newest downloads to open or drag into any app, and the ones on their way.
  • Notifications Other apps' banners drop out of the notch; the bell keeps them all, the unread marked.
  • Keep Awake Keep this Mac from going to sleep, until you stop it or for a set time.
  • Lock Keyboard Lock the keyboard while you clean it, or black out the screen too; hold Esc to end.
  • Focus Turn Do Not Disturb on or off; hold to choose another Focus.
  • Lock Screen Lock this Mac with a click; your Home widgets carry on under the lock screen clock.
  • Battery Battery charge and health for this Mac, plus AirPods, keyboards, mice and trackpads.
  • System Monitor How busy the processor, memory, disk and network are, and which apps use the most.
  • Displays The brightness and power of every display, external monitors too, and Night Shift.
Every tool, group by group →

Dictation

Dictate, translate and fix text in any app. Dictera lives in your menu bar and your notch, and types wherever your cursor is. All about dictation →

  • Click Dictate in the notch Click and talk, click again, and your words land where your cursor was. The Dictate widget on Home does the same.
  • Or hold the right ⌘ Push-to-talk by default. Or double-tap a modifier, or record any key combination - on the left key, the right key or either.
  • Types into any app Email, docs, chat, terminals, IDEs. The text is pasted at the cursor, or typed key by key, with Type text instead of pasting, for apps that need real keystrokes.
  • Dictation shows on the notch Live level bars and the time, in the colour of what you're doing: white, green when cleanup will run, purple for a translation, amber for a voice edit. Then a tick.
  • Stop, Cancel or Esc Point at the strip for Stop and Cancel. esc stops too, and drops what you said unless Esc while recording, in Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ Recording, says Stop and Insert.
  • Say a reminder Press ⌃⌥⌘R in any app, say what to remember and when, and it goes to Reminders. The notch shows what it understood, with Undo.
  • Quick Controls A page of the notch: hold Dictate, or press ⌥⌘C. Switch each voice feature on or off, and pick the languages and models they use.
  • Choose the microphone On the notch's Microphone page, or in Settings ▸ Dictation, with a level meter to test it on its Recording page.
  • Stop on Silence Ends the recording when you go quiet, if you want it to. The threshold and the timeout are yours to tune.
  • Sound effects A sound when a recording starts and stops, from a choice of sounds - or none.
  • Keep dictated text on the clipboard Leaves what you said on the clipboard after it lands, when you want it there.
  • Keep Model Ready Loads the speech model at launch, so your first dictation starts instantly.

Languages & speech models

Four speech engines that run on your Mac, and the language worked out as you speak.

  • Automatic language detection The default. Choose the language you speak when it helps the engine.
  • Two languages, one sentence Switch mid-sentence and each word comes back in its own language, with an engine that hears both.
  • Apple Speech Analyzer The speech engine built into macOS: streaming, low-power, kept up to date by the system.
  • Parakeet Ultra 0.6B NVIDIA's Parakeet, retrained by Moondream for higher accuracy across English and other European languages.
  • Nemotron 3.5 Streaming Nvidia's streaming engine, with automatic detection across 100+ languages.
  • SenseVoice Small From Alibaba: fast and light, for Chinese, Cantonese, English, Japanese and Korean.
  • Download what you need Download, switch, reinstall and delete engines in Settings, sizes shown first. Switch between them from Quick Controls.
  • The app in 11 languages Including German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Ukrainian and Chinese.

Writing tools

Dictera polishes what you say - and fixes, rewrites or translates what you've already written, in any app.

  • Cleanup A Gemma 4 model on your Mac removes filler words and fixes punctuation before the text lands, in 140+ languages. If cleanup fails, you still get what you said.
  • Translate Dictation Double-tap the right ⌘ and speak, and a clean translation lands instead - 29 languages to translate into.
  • Edit Selection Select text, hold the right ⇧ and say the change - "make it shorter", "turn this into bullet points". The rewrite lands in place.
  • Correct Selection Double-tap the right ⌥ and grammar, spelling and punctuation are fixed where they sit.
  • Translate Selection Hold the right ⌥ and the translation drops out of the notch on a card, already copied. Your document isn't touched.
  • Say the punctuation "New line", "new paragraph", "comma", "question mark" - and "scratch that" throws the dictation away.
  • Custom vocabulary Replacements for names, brands and jargon, so they come out right every time.

The AI Assistant

An assistant for calls, meeting notes and chat. It works in three places: the Assist panel over your call, and the Meetings and Chat pages in the notch. All about the AI Assistant →

  • The AI Assistant button In the notch's top row, beside Chat and Meetings. Click it to show or hide the Assist panel; hold it to start Assist or Meeting Notes listening. ⌥⌘H shows the panel from any app.
  • You can see it listening The notch shows the assistant listening, and for how long. Point at it to turn your mic off, open it or stop.
  • Hears both sides, no bot Your microphone and the other participants, captured through macOS itself. Nothing joins your call.
  • No Screen Recording permission The other side comes through a Core Audio process tap, so a call needs only Microphone and System Audio.
  • Your mic, on or off Listening starts with your microphone on. Turn Mic off whenever you'd rather not be in the transcript.
  • Speaker echo, cancelled On loudspeakers, so the other side isn't transcribed twice. On by default.
  • Assist and Meeting Notes at once Start both on one call and each gets its own session: live answers in the panel, the write-up on the Meetings page.
  • A model and a language per mode Something fast for live answers, something larger for the write-up. Each listening mode works in the one language you pick.

Assist - answers on a call

The Assist panel sits over your call and transcribes both sides as you talk. It's the one part of the assistant that lives in a panel of its own.

  • Answer, or Auto Press Answer for a suggested reply to the last question. Switch on Auto and one appears whenever you're asked something - it's off until you do.
  • Answer one specific line Point at any line in the transcript and answer exactly that, however far back it was said.
  • One-press rewrites Shorter, Simpler, More detail or an Example, without retyping the question.
  • Without leaving the call Switch on Answer, ⌥⌘A, and Start or Stop Listening, ⌥⌘L, in Settings ▸ Shortcut, and both work from any app. Both are off until you do.
  • Templates Save the scenario, who you are and any background - for interviews, sales calls or standups.
  • Ask about what's on screen Capture the screen or just the window in front, leaving Dictera's own windows out, and send it with your next question - with a model that can read images.
  • Diagrams and tables An answer can come with a diagram, drawn on your Mac and a click from full size, and a table comes as a table.
  • 15 panel shortcuts Grouped as Actions, Navigation and Display, each one editable, with Restore Panel Defaults. They work on the Meetings page too.
  • Resize it, or hide a column Drag any edge or divider, or hide the conversation and give the answer the whole panel. Reset panel layout undoes it all.
  • Compact mode A smaller panel for a crowded screen, with the opacity and text size set to taste.

Meeting Notes - the write-up, without a bot

Record a call on the notch's Meetings page, stop, and Dictera writes it up. Nothing joins your call. All about Meeting Notes →

  • The Meetings page The day's meetings on the left, a day at a time, with Meeting History for the rest. The one you pick has its Notes, Transcript and Setup on the right.
  • Notes when you stop Summary, decisions, action items and open questions - written when you stop recording, or whenever you ask.
  • Notes, minutes, transcript or chapters Pick which one a meeting is for and stopping writes it. Other write-ups has the rest.
  • Notes in the shape of the session A meeting, a lecture or talk, a one-on-one, an interview or a sales call - worked out for you, or chosen under Notes shape.
  • Action items with owners Name the participants, or let the invite name them, and an item says who owns it - or "Unassigned", never a guess.
  • Long meetings A transcript longer than the model can read at once is read in passes, and the Meetings page says how many.
  • Reshape, or edit by hand Action items, By topic or a Recap email in one press; Key terms and a Study guide for a lecture. Or fix a misheard name yourself, and Revert whenever you like.
  • Ask afterwards, save as Markdown Questions answered from the transcript, and every write-up saved to a Markdown file or copied.
  • Record a Meeting Switch on ⌥⇧⌘R in Settings ▸ Shortcut to record from any app; press it again to stop and write it up.

Calendar

Connect your calendar and a recording knows which meeting it belongs to and who was invited. Dictera reads it and never writes to it.

  • Optional, from the first run The welcome tour offers it; Settings ▸ Calendar and the Meetings page connect it later. iCloud, Google, Outlook and Exchange need no second sign-in.
  • A countdown on the notch For the last 5 minutes before a meeting, with Join and Record a point away.
  • It asks, and silence records nothing Shortly before the start, a card asks whether to record. If you don't answer, nothing is recorded. Record automatically is there for the meetings you choose.
  • It learns your meetings Skip one a couple of times and Dictera stops asking about it; keep saying yes and it offers to record that series by itself. It never decides for you.
  • Attendees fill Meeting Setup The names on the invite become the participants. Email addresses are never stored, and the names reach a remote engine only if you switch on Send attendee names to remote engines.
  • When the meeting ends A recording can ask before it stops, with Keep recording a click away. One with nothing scheduled behind it can ask after the hours you choose.

Chat - a private model in the notch

Chat is a page of the notch: a typed conversation with the model you picked for it, including the one built into Dictera. No browser tab, no account.

  • Ask Dictera Double-tap the right ⇧ and the notch opens on its Chat page, cursor in the field. Type or dictate a question, and the answer joins the conversation you had going.
  • New Chat and Chat History Start fresh, or search the conversations before, grouped by day.
  • Nothing is listening Chat never listens to a call. The microphone opens only if you dictate your question.
  • Answers in your language Chat replies in whatever language you write.
  • Its own engine Pick Chat's model under Chat in the notch, in Settings ▸ AI Assistant - apart from Assist and Meeting Notes.
  • Pictures Capture the screen or the window in front, or paste an image with ⌘V, and ask about it - with a model that can read images.
  • Diagrams and tables Answers can draw a diagram - click it to see it full size, zoom in or copy it - and show a table as a table.
  • A question at a time ⌥⌘↑ and ⌥⌘↓ step through a long chat; it opens where you left off, and code has its own Copy button.

Your own AI

The built-in model needs no setup. Prefer your own? Point each feature at a local server, a cloud provider or the Claude Code CLI.

  • Built in, and the default Gemma 4 E2B runs cleanup, translation and the assistant on your Mac out of the box. E4B is a larger download for stronger translation and instruction-following. Both cover 140+ languages.
  • Six local servers, preset Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp server, Jan, vLLM, LocalAI. A server on this Mac sends nothing anywhere; one on another computer gets the text over your network.
  • Seven cloud providers, preset OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, Together AI, xAI. Each needs your own API key, and the app tells you that your text will go to it.
  • Any OpenAI-compatible server Not on the list? Add its address and model name.
  • Claude Code CLI The Claude Code tool already on your Mac, pointed at a project folder. It can read and search that folder but never change it, and it can also search and open web pages.
  • Connector tools you choose MCP connectors reach nothing until you tick their tools one by one, or choose All read-only tools.
  • One engine per feature Cleanup, translation, Assist, Meeting Notes and Chat each pick their own.
  • Keys in the Keychain API keys are kept in the Keychain, never in a settings file.
  • Test before you rely on it Test Connection checks that the server and the model answer.

History, sessions & statistics

What you dictate and what the assistant writes are kept on this Mac - searchable, exportable, and kept as long as you choose.

  • Dictation history Every transcription, searchable, with the ones you reuse pinned to the top.
  • Export, keep or clear Export your history, choose how long it's kept, clear it all - or switch it off.
  • Sessions, searched The Assist panel's list, Meeting History and Chat History each search their own sessions, titled automatically.
  • Recurring series File meetings under the series they repeat and filter by it. Dictera may suggest one, but nothing is filed under a series you didn't choose.
  • What a series still owes Every open action item across a series, in one list, read from the notes you already have - no model runs.
  • Kept as long as you choose Sessions stay until you delete them, or for the time you set. Switch off Save Assistant Sessions and nothing is written.
  • Usage statistics Words dictated, sessions and the typing time you saved. Only the counts are stored, never your text.
  • Weekly report A short summary each week: words dictated and time saved.
  • Settings search A search field that finds the setting you're after.

Platform & privacy

Speech is recognized on your Mac and never uploaded. Online features send only what they need, to the service that needs it, and each can be switched off. See exactly what, when and to whom →

  • Every destination, listed Each service Dictera contacts, what it sends, when, and the switch for it.
  • Dictation and AI, offline Once their models are downloaded, dictation and the built-in AI work with no internet connection, and a license keeps working offline for 14 days. Online features, like cover art and synced lyrics, need a connection.
  • Your notes and chats stay out of your screen share Chat and Meetings stay out of screen sharing and recordings by apps that respect the window privacy setting in macOS. The notch and the Assist panel are hidden from them by default, and the eye in the notch lets a share see them.
  • No account No sign-up and no password, and the trial doesn't ask for an email.
  • Permissions Microphone and Accessibility to start. The rest are optional, offered in the welcome tour or when a feature first needs them - and never Input Monitoring.
  • Keyboard shortcuts Every default, and which ones you switch on, in one list.
  • Your menu bar and your notch A native Mac app: no Dock icon, no browser tab.
  • A welcome tour Shows the notch, your voice and the assistant, sets up what dictation needs, and lets you try each voice action.
  • Launch at Login So the notch and your shortcuts are ready when your Mac is.
  • Automatic updates Signed, notarized releases through Sparkle - checked automatically, or only when you ask.
  • One license, 3 Macs Activate a subscription on up to 3 Macs, and deactivate one to move it.
  • 14-day free trial Every feature is unlocked while you try Dictera. When it ends, the notch, dictation and the AI Assistant stop until you subscribe; everything you saved stays on your Mac.
  • Requirements A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later.

Try everything, free for 14 days.

The notch, dictation and the AI Assistant, all unlocked. No card, no account.

Download for Mac See pricing

Requires a Mac with Apple silicon · macOS 26 or later