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TypelessMLX

A native macOS offline voice dictation app. Hold a hotkey to speak, release to have text automatically typed at cursor position. Powered by Breeze-ASR-25 (Traditional Chinese optimized) and MLX Whisper with Apple Silicon fp16 acceleration, fully offline with automatic punctuation and filler word filtering.

Best For

Apple Silicon Mac users (M1+) who need Traditional Chinese voice input. Particularly suited for privacy-conscious users (no audio data leaves the device), those who frequently dictate long text passages, or anyone dissatisfied with macOS built-in dictation quality for Chinese.

How I Actually Use It

Install from DMG and select the Breeze-ASR-25 model (MediaTek Traditional Chinese optimized, ~1.8 GB). During daily work, hold Right Option to speak, release to have text automatically typed at cursor position. Auto-punctuation means dictated content gets commas and periods without manual intervention. Filler word filtering removes "uh" and "um" equivalents. Sits quietly in Menu Bar, always ready.

Where It Is Strong

  • All speech inference runs locally on Apple Silicon. Zero data upload, complete privacy control
  • Breeze-ASR-25 (developed by MediaTek) is specifically tuned for Taiwanese Mandarin, with noticeably better accuracy than system built-in
  • Hold hotkey (default Right Option), speak, release. Text appears at cursor in any app
  • Auto-punctuation + filler filtering: automatically adds commas, periods, question marks and removes hesitation sounds
  • Models range from zero-download system built-in to 3.1 GB Whisper Large v3. Pick your accuracy/speed tradeoff
  • macOS 26+ can enable Apple Intelligence text refinement for further output polishing

Where It Fails

  • M1+ required, Intel Macs completely unsupported
  • No license specified. Must confirm with author before commercial use or derivative works
  • Created 2026-04-24, small community (27 stars), long-term maintenance uncertain
  • Breeze-ASR-25 is ~1.8 GB one-time download
  • Requires Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring permissions; some enterprise MDM policies may block these
  • Relies on mlx-whisper / mlx-audio, and the MLX ecosystem is still maturing

Pricing, Difficulty, and Risk

  • Completely free (open source)
  • Setup: Download DMG → drag to Applications → auto-setup on first launch (1-2 min) → grant 3 system permissions
  • Risk is the missing license (legal gray area), possible early-stage stability issues, and code signing that may need re-authorization after system updates

Verdict

Among open-source options for offline Traditional Chinese voice dictation on macOS, this has the most complete experience. One-key dictation is smooth, offline privacy is solid, and Breeze-ASR-25's Taiwanese Mandarin accuracy is the core draw. New project, but worth watching.

Source