Speakhold GitHubDownload

Install Speakhold

A 12 MB download for macOS 14 and newer on Apple Silicon. Pick whichever of the three feels most like you. Each ends with Speakhold in the menu bar.

Most people

Download the disk image

Open it, drag Speakhold into the Applications folder shown next to it, then open the app from Launchpad or Spotlight.

Download Speakhold.dmg
No warnings

One line in Terminal

Press ⌘ Space, type Terminal, press return. Paste this line and press return. It downloads the app, puts it in Applications and opens it, and macOS raises no warning because the download never passes through the browser.

curl -fsSL https://speakhold.wildinteractive.app/install.sh | sh

Plain text, read what it does before you run it.

Homebrew

brew install

If you already use Homebrew. Updates come with brew upgrade.

brew install --cask sturzael/tap/speakhold

If macOS says it cannot check the app

Speakhold is not yet notarised with Apple, so the first launch of a downloaded copy shows this. It is not a verdict on the app. The source is public and the build is reproducible from it. Here is the way through, which takes about twenty seconds.

macOS 15 Sequoia and newer

Illustration of the dialog. Click Done, not Move to Trash.

  1. Click Done.
  2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll to the bottom of the page.
  3. Next to "Speakhold was blocked to protect your Mac", click Open Anyway, then confirm with your password or Touch ID.

Illustration of the Privacy & Security pane. The row appears only after the first blocked attempt.

macOS 14 Sonoma

  1. In Applications, right-click Speakhold and choose Open.
  2. In the dialog, click Open again.

Either way it only happens once. After that Speakhold opens like any other app, and updates installed the same way do not ask again.

First run

  1. Speakhold appears in the menu bar. Hold left Control + left Option and say something. It asks for the microphone the first time.
  2. It also asks for Accessibility, which is how the words are typed where your cursor is. Flip the switch for Speakhold and come back.
  3. The first dictation downloads the speech model, about 600 MB, once. After that it is instant and offline.
  4. To record a call, choose Record meeting from the menu bar, or tap Record when the pill notices a call. The first recording asks for Screen & System Audio Recording, which is how the other side of the call is heard. No bot joins.

Uninstall

Quit Speakhold, drag it from Applications to the Trash. Your meeting notes stay where you saved them. Homebrew users: brew uninstall --cask speakhold.

Try it

Download Speakhold for MacSource on GitHub

Free · MIT · macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon · no account

Compared with Willow Voice · Wispr Flow · Superwhisper · MacWhisper · Fireflies · Otter