Steno lets you speak at 150 WPM in Slack — and every other app on your Mac.
Download for MacYou speak 3x faster than you type. Steno captures every word.
Press Left Control and keep holding it. Steno starts recording while the key is held.
Don't let go yet! Talk at your normal pace while keeping the key pressed.
Let go of the key when you're done. Your words are instantly transcribed and typed wherever your cursor is.
Steno detects your code editor and preserves variable names, commands, and technical jargon. Dictate commit messages, Slack replies, and docs without leaving your flow.
First drafts at the speed of thought. Dictate notes, briefs, and emails while the ideas are still fresh.
RSI creeping in? Hate typing on a Monday morning? Hold a key and talk. Your Mac does the rest.
Text editors, browsers, Slack, emails, terminal — Steno types into any app on your Mac.
Say "period", "new line", "select all", or "undo" and Steno executes the command.
Save frequently used text blocks. Say "address" and your full address gets typed out.
Every transcription is saved and searchable. Copy any past dictation with one click.
Track your words per minute, daily sessions, and total words dictated over time.
Sub-second transcription, even for long dictations. Release the key and your words appear almost instantly.
Automatically polishes your words based on the app. Casual in Slack, professional in email, technical in VS Code — no setup needed.
Speak in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, or Hindi. Mix languages mid-sentence — Steno auto-detects. Translate to English or transliterate to Roman script.
Run transcription entirely on your Mac — no internet needed. Powered by on-device AI on Apple Silicon. Your audio never leaves your computer.
Noisy coffee shop? Open office? Steno learns your voice and filters out everything else. Only your words get transcribed.
Steno detects when you're in VS Code, Terminal, or Xcode and preserves technical terms — camelCase, snake_case, CLI commands, and file paths come through exactly as spoken.
Transcribe entire meetings in real time with automatic speaker identification. Each person gets their own label and color — just start the meeting and Steno does the rest.
One click turns any meeting transcript into a structured summary with key takeaways and action items. Copy or email the summary to yourself instantly.
“I reply to Slack threads and emails without breaking my coding flow. Hold a key, speak, keep coding. It’s changed how I work.”
“I draft entire blog posts by just talking. First drafts at the speed of thought — then I edit. My output has tripled.”
“After years of wrist pain from typing, Steno was a lifesaver. I rest my hands and I’m actually more productive than before.”
| Steno | Wispr Flow | Superwhisper | Apple Dictation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works in every app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hold-to-speak | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Native macOS app (Swift) | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sub-second transcription | ✓ | ✓ | Varies | Slow |
| Voice commands | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | Basic |
| Text snippets | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Dictation history | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
| WPM & usage stats | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
| AI auto-editing | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Offline mode | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Voice isolation | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Translation & transliteration | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Dev-aware (code editors) | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| App size | Under 2 MB | ~350 MB | ~300 MB | Built-in |
| Multi-platform | macOS | Mac, Win, iOS | macOS | macOS, iOS |
Steno is a native macOS app written in Swift. No Electron, no web wrappers, no bloat. Just fast, focused software that does one thing exceptionally well.
The entire app is under 2 MB. That's 150–200x smaller than alternatives like Wispr Flow (~350 MB) or Superwhisper (~300 MB). No bundled ML models, no Electron bloat. Steno is pure native Swift — it installs in seconds and uses under 30 MB of memory at runtime.
From the moment you release the key to text appearing on screen — under a second. The audio pipeline is optimized end-to-end: recording stops, audio is compressed, transcribed (via cloud or on-device), and the result is typed out. Most dictations complete in 200–500ms.
Uses macOS Accessibility APIs to type directly into any focused app — character by character, just like a real keyboard. No clipboard hijacking, no paste artifacts. Works in Slack, VS Code, Terminal, Safari, and every other app.
Real-time voice activity detection distinguishes speech from silence. Adaptive hallucination filtering prevents phantom transcriptions when you're not speaking. Voice isolation separates your voice from background noise.
Code-signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized through Apple's automated security checks. Installs via a standard macOS PKG installer — no dragging to Applications, no unsigned app warnings.
State-of-the-art speech recognition handles accents, technical jargon, programming terms, and natural conversational speech. Punctuation is added automatically. No need to say "period" or "comma" — just talk naturally.
Download, install, grant mic access. Start dictating in 30 seconds.
Download for Mac