What it does

Voxt is a macOS menu-bar app that transcribes, translates, and rewrites text via global hotkeys: hold fn to dictate, fn+shift to translate, fn+control to use voice as an AI prompt. It pastes results automatically when you release the key. The app supports both cloud and on-device models, including a wide catalog of local ASR and LLM options via MLX Audio, WhisperKit, and Apple’s own dictation engine.

The interesting bit

The “App Branch” system: different apps and URLs can trigger different enhancement rules, prompts, and even model selections. Code in VS Code gets one treatment, Slack another, your browser a third. It’s a small detail that solves the real problem of voice input—context is everything, and a generic transcript often needs to be different generic transcripts.

Key highlights

• Live transcription with real-time preview and optional filler-word removal
• Per-app/URL prompt branching for coding, chat, email, etc.
• Personal dictionary with optional auto-correction of near-matches
• Separate model pickers for transcription vs. translation vs. rewriting
• Broad local model support: MLX Audio (Qwen3-ASR, Voxtral, Parakeet, etc.), WhisperKit, and local LLMs via MLX
• Homebrew install: brew install --cask voxt

Caveats

• macOS 15.0+ required for local MLX Audio models
• Whisper translation is English-only; selected-text translation falls back to LLM providers
• Local model downloads can be large (Whisper Large-v3 is ~3 GB) and errors like “Model repository unavailable” or incomplete downloads are explicitly documented

Verdict

Worth a look if you do a lot of typing on Mac and want voice input that adapts to where you’re typing, not just what you’re saying. Skip it if you’re not on macOS or if you need cross-device sync—this is a single-machine utility.