p.01 · Desi Dictation · Install guide

    Install Desi Dictation on your Mac.

    Fastest: one command

    It does steps 1 and 2 below for you. Then carry on from step 3.

    $ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/s-samarth/desi-dictation/main/install.sh | bash

    Terminal · paste, press Enter

    What it does

    1. Checks for an Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14 or newer
    2. Downloads the newest release from GitHub
    3. Verifies its SHA-256 against the published checksum
    4. Puts the app in Applications and opens it

    macOS only shows “Apple could not verify” for files a browser downloaded, so this route skips that step. Run the same command again any time to update.

    Read the script

    Or by hand

    Download the DMG, then follow every step below, starting at 1.

    Download for Mac

    v0.6.2 · 1.8 MB · macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon

    p.02

    p.02 · Install · One time

    Five minutes, once.

    The app is tiny. The models are not, so you pick only the ones you need. Everything after this runs on your Mac with nothing sent anywhere.

    1. DMG route only

      Download it and drag it into Applications.

      Open the DMG and drag Desi Dictation onto the Applications folder. It lives in your menu bar as a mic icon; there is no Dock icon, by design.

    2. DMG route only

      Get past Apple’s “could not verify”.

      The beta is signed with my own certificate but not notarised by Apple yet. That costs $99 a year and comes before the public launch. Until then macOS blocks the first open. This is expected, not malware, and you only do it once.

      The click way

      1. Double-click the app. macOS says it can’t verify it. Click Done, not Move to Trash.
      2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll down.
      3. Next to “Desi Dictation was blocked”, click Open Anyway and confirm.

      Or clear it in Terminal

      After dragging the app into Applications, paste this into Terminal. It removes the quarantine flag macOS puts on downloaded apps, so it opens like any other.

      $ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Desi Dictation.app"

      Terminal · run it once

    3. Grant three permissions, then reopen it.

      It types your words into other apps, and that needs macOS’s blessing:

      PermissionWhyWhere
      Microphoneto hear youa prompt on first launch, click Allow
      Accessibilityto paste the text into the app you are usingPrivacy & Security → Accessibility
      Input Monitoringto catch the hotkey from anywherePrivacy & Security → Input Monitoring

      Then quit from the menu bar and open it again. macOS only applies these at startup; forgetting this is the number one reason the hotkey seems dead.

    4. Download the models you speak.

      Menu bar → Open Desi Dictation… → Models. Get one ★ per language you speak, plus the VAD add-on. All free during the beta, and every download is SHA256-checked.

      ModelWhen you wantSize
      Hinglish Apex (recommended)Hinglish, “kal meeting hai, deck ready rakhna”547 MB
      Hinglish SwiftHinglish on older or 8 GB Macs141 MB
      Parakeet (recommended)English, fastest and most accurate416 MB
      Whisper Large v3 TurboEnglish fallback, older Macs574 MB
      Vaani Hindi (recommended)शुद्ध हिन्दी, in Devanagari1.06 GB
      Silero VAD (recommended)Everyone. Better pauses and long dictations1 MB

      Leave Model: Auto. Each language remembers its own model and loads it when you switch.

    5. Hold a key and talk.

      Click Enable Dictation (the first load takes about 8 s). Click into any text field: WhatsApp Web, Slack, Notes, your IDE. Then hold Right ⌥, speak naturally, and let go.

      The words land at your cursor and stay on your clipboard. Esc throws a dictation away. Prefer tap-to-start, or a different key like Right ⌘ or F13? Both are on the Dictation screen.

    p.03

    p.03 · Troubleshooting

    Stuck? Start here.

    “Desi Dictation can’t be opened”

    Usually the Gatekeeper block from step 2. If Open Anyway doesn’t appear, check the Apple menu → About This Mac: Intel Macs and macOS 13 or older aren’t supported.

    The hotkey does nothing

    Grant Input Monitoring and Accessibility, then quit and reopen the app. macOS only applies grants at startup. If a toggle shows on but it still fails, the grant is stale: reset it and grant again.

    $ tccutil reset Accessibility com.desi.dictation

    $ tccutil reset ListenEvent com.desi.dictation

    It records, but nothing gets pasted

    Accessibility is missing, or you clicked away mid-dictation. The text is on your clipboard anyway, so ⌘V still works.

    Updating to a new version

    Run the one-line installer again; it quits the old copy and swaps in the newest. By hand: quit from the menu bar, drag the new app into Applications and choose Replace. Either way, don’t uninstall first: settings, history, dictionary and models are kept.

    Check the download is mine

    Downloaded the DMG by hand? The first line fingerprints your file, the second prints the fingerprint published with the release. If they match, it is exactly the file I built and put on GitHub. The one-line installer does this check for you.

    $ shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/DesiDictation.dmg

    $ curl -fsSL https://github.com/s-samarth/desi-dictation/releases/latest/download/DesiDictation.dmg.sha256

    Terminal · optional

    Ready? Kal meeting hai.

    Download for MacAbout Desi Dictation All releases

    made by Samarth Saraswat. questions? raise a ticket.