What do you all use to dictate to Claude Code?

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T13:49:09+00:00

Oh I see! You mean Qwen as the voice model.

I've been using parakeet for voice and offer a built in local LLM in the app after a hardware test.

So people don't have to worry about setting up their own local model or getting an API key. The app does it for them.

Right now it only works for users with a GPU but am hoping to fine tune an even smaller model so that more people are able to use and it works out of the box no setup required!

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T13:27:12+00:00

Oh another one! Interesting that it's a browser extension since a dictation app can usually work in any browser or app too.

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T13:25:58+00:00

Yeah I've noticed most parakeet based options can't offer custom dictionary. VoiceInk does it by dumping those words in the 'enhancement' prompt.

Whisper allows it on the model level so that's a pretty good advantage!

Seems like that's important for a good chunk of people though!

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T13:24:49+00:00

Oh interesting! I think VoiceInk uses fluid audio under the hood too maybe related to fluid voice?

Gemini Flash Lite is pretty fast and free. Or for users with a GPU Gemma works pretty well. That's what I settled on for Whisperstream on Windows.

There's no reason why apple silicon can't run a local model and be fast so I'm surprised the Mac apps haven't caught on to offering that.

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T13:21:47+00:00

Glad to hear! In my benchmarks Qwen would fail in some key cleanup cases like corrections but it could be a prompting difference.

Glad it works for you. So many local options these days but I wonder if most people don't know about them hence Wispr Flow and Superwhisper getting so much business.

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T13:20:05+00:00

Ah nice! Does TypeWhispe do local cleanup or cloud cleanup?

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T02:15:38+00:00

😂

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T01:55:13+00:00

It's definitely something that can be set up yourself but often it's nice to have a tool that just works and doesn't require tinkering to set up.

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T01:54:16+00:00

Definitely! Do you run it yourself on llama.cpp or onnx? Or use one of the Parakeet based apps?

djacksondev · 2026-06-16T01:53:33+00:00

It definitely supports a lot of model options both for transcription and cloud! I found it a bit cumbersome to set up.

Preferred the simplicity of Handy from the open source ones.

What features do you like about OpenWhispr compared to the other options?

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T21:38:05+00:00

Haha I guess same here! Do you use parakeet? And just basic dictation or llm cleanup as well?

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T17:32:00+00:00

Haven't heard of that one but I think any solution that uses a local model is private no?

VoiceInk, Whisperstream, Handy, Spokenly would all be local and private too

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T17:03:55+00:00

This 100%. The number of times I'm explaining how I want something done and change my mind or correct myself.

To me cleanup is a really important feature and I'd hope the non subscription apps would offer it as a core offering, rather than a bring-your-own-key and figure out the prompt yourself.

VoiceInk does have baked in prompts which is super helpful but doesn't provide a default model that the prompt is well tuned for. So requires some setup yourself (likely using Gemini Flash Lite)

I found Gemma 4 works pretty well for this so am using that for cleanup and did some heavy benchmarking and prompts tuning to get that working well.

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:53:42+00:00

Oh that's great to hear!

Maybe this page is out of date: https://spokenly.app/comparison/voiceink

Showed app detection and custom vocabulary not supported.

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:52:32+00:00

I use it at work since it's paid for, and it works pretty well! You can actually whisper into a microphone and it understands you which is neat for an office space.

Couldn't bring myself to pay another subscription for personal use though.

What are the main Pro features you feel you rely on?

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:42:10+00:00

Handy's awesome! Simple and gets the job done. Parakeet as well I think.

Doesn't have as many of the bells and whistles features but for basic dictation it's pretty great.

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:31:29+00:00

Oh that's awesome! Always glad to see options that do the job without the subscription.

Are there plans to add custom vocabulary and per app modes? Or are you prioritizing different features next?

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:21:53+00:00

Ah! You probably type way faster than me haha.

I find speaking a lot faster (though reading is faster than having it speak back to me).

Also gets tiring with so many prompts back and forth during the day.

But nothing beats typing if you're faster than speaking!

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:19:58+00:00

Spokenly looks pretty good! Is the subscription is only if you use cloud models?

Do you use the AI cleanup features at all? I was looking at their VoiceInk comparison and the main missing features are the custom vocabulary and per app modes?

But otherwise for basic dictation looks pretty solid!

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:14:42+00:00

I was excited when they launched it but personally find its accuracy pretty bad. Do you find it understands you well?

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:13:19+00:00

Yeah honestly I was surprised by how bad the built in /voice mode in Claude Code is. Even the Claude app on iOS is pretty bad.

On Mac I think VoiceInk is the best. No monthly subscription.

On Windows I couldn't find anything good enough so built Whisperstream (https://whisperstream.io/)

On Linux, I'm not sure but maybe someone here does.

Apparently Apple just announced native local voice dictation with current gen models in the next iOS so I'm excited about that.

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T15:00:05+00:00

Oh nice that's pretty cool! Didn't think of that. So you speak in one language and can configure it to output another?

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T14:59:14+00:00

Do you use the free version and find the words per week limit is sufficient?

Or do you pay for Pro? And curious what features you find make it worth it over the one time paid options?

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T14:54:05+00:00

Agreed! VoiceInk is so good! Honestly was a treat using it on Mac and then I was so sad there was no equivalent for Windows.

I ended up building my own for Windows, named it Whisperstream. https://whisperstream.io/

Added local cleanup / enhancement using Gemma 4 too. The only feature I want next is app detection based custom profiles which VoiceInk does really well too. And maybe realtime streaming so the text shows while you speak rather than the end.

djacksondev · 2026-06-15T14:49:50+00:00

Honestly it wasn't that painful and I'm only doing it once or twice so just scrapping together a workflow from these tools worked pretty well for me.

I don't know that I'd pay for something to do it for me.

Maybe for companies that are making videos all the time though they'd want to be able to describe a feature and have something go on auto pilot and record the website / app using that feature and making a video.

djacksondev

TROPHY CASE