Your Mac has Dictation built in. Why this?
Apple's Dictation is free and fine for a quick sentence. People move to JustSpeak when they talk more than that:
- Your names, spelled your way. Add people, places and work words to the Dictionary once. For a word that keeps coming out wrong, say what to write instead and it's fixed every time.
- Clean mode. Drops the ums, tidies punctuation, keeps your meaning. Verbatim keeps every word.
- Up to ten minutes at a stretch. Think out loud for a whole email or a page of notes, then it's typed in one go.
- Over 60 languages, and automatic detection when you mix English with another language.
- Nothing clever happening behind your back. It records while you hold or toggle the shortcut, types once, and stops.
If you already use Apple's shortcut
Apple Dictation often sits on “press Control twice”, which is easy to trigger by accident when your JustSpeak shortcut also uses Control. Setup notices this and shows you the one setting to change. It's optional, and it's one click.
How it works
- Click where you want to write. An email, a document, a chat box, a form.
- Tap Ctrl + Space and talk the way you'd talk to a person.
- Tap it again. Your words appear where the cursor was, punctuation and all.
That's the whole app. The shortcut is yours to change, and you can hold it down instead of tapping if you prefer push-to-talk.
On the Mac
JustSpeak is a small, notarized app for macOS 11 and later, Apple silicon and Intel. On first run it asks for the microphone and for Accessibility, which is what lets it type into other apps. The setup walks you through both.
What it costs
Start with 30 free minutes, no card. After that it's $8 a month, $59 a year, or $99 once for life. Every paid plan is unlimited dictation on your own computers. If a disability or painful hands make typing hard, email support@justspeak.live and we'll take 20% off any plan.
Questions
- Which Macs does it run on?
- Any Mac on macOS 11 Big Sur or later, Apple silicon or Intel. The download is under 10 MB.
- Why does it ask for Accessibility access?
- That's the macOS permission that lets an app type into other apps. Without it JustSpeak can still hear you, but it can't put the words at your cursor.
- Which languages does it understand?
- Over 60, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Hindi, Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic and Russian. Pick one in Settings, or choose automatic detection to mix English with Spanish, French, German, Hindi, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian or Dutch in the same sentence.
- Does it need the internet?
- Yes. Your recording goes to our speech partner, comes back as text, and isn't kept. There's no offline mode.
- Is my audio stored?
- No. Recordings are turned into text and then dropped. Keeping a history of your transcripts is optional and off by default.
- How long can I talk in one go?
- Up to ten minutes. At nine minutes a small notice warns you, and at ten JustSpeak types what you've said so far.