How dictation works in Volna
- Tap a key. The right ⌘, or ⌥Space. A small panel shows that Volna is listening.
- Speak naturally. Pause when you like. Volna listens only while you dictate; Esc cancels.
- The text appears where your cursor is, about a second after you stop speaking. Mail, Slack, Notes, a browser, a code editor: any app with a text field.
Why dictate with Volna
- Private by design. Your voice and your text are processed on your Mac and never sent anywhere. There is no account to create.
- Works offline. Once the speech model is downloaded, recognition needs no internet connection: on a plane, on a train, behind a company firewall.
- Your languages. English, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish, and nearly a hundred more. English terms inside a sentence in another language are fine.
- Your vocabulary. Teach Volna the names, tools and terms of your work. When you correct a word, Volna can remember the correction for next time.
- History. Every dictation stays on your Mac, ready to copy or insert again.
- Free while in beta. No word limits, no subscription.
Volna and the dictation built into macOS
macOS has dictation of its own, and it is a good start: it is free and already on your Mac. Volna is for when you dictate a lot: it runs a large open speech model on your Mac, learns your words, keeps a history of what you said and puts the text into any app with one key.
Who it is for
- Developers who dictate prompts, commit messages and code comments, with technical terms spelled the way they should be.
- People who work in two or three languages: English at work, Portuguese or Spanish at home.
- Anyone whose hands need a break: write without typing, in every app.
Compare
- Offline speech to text for Mac: what runs where, and what Volna sends (nothing of yours).
- Volna as a Wispr Flow alternative
- Volna as a superwhisper alternative
- MacWhisper vs Volna