Open-source Mac dictation that turns speech into polished text in the app you're already using.
Free app · Apple Silicon · Bring your own AssemblyAI API key
- Download Blurt.dmg.
- Open the disk image and drag Blurt.app into
Applications. - Launch Blurt and follow setup: Microphone, Accessibility, and your AssemblyAI API key.
- Dictate with right command by default. Tap to toggle, or hold for push-to-talk.
Blurt needs macOS 15 or later on Apple Silicon, plus an AssemblyAI API key (free tier available).
- Accurate. Transcription runs on AssemblyAI's most accurate speech-to-text model.
- Fast. The model responds in under 100 ms, so text lands about as soon as you stop speaking.
- Multilingual. Works in 18 languages.
- Works anywhere you can type. Blurt pastes the transcript into the focused Mac app.
- Polished in one step. Audio goes to AssemblyAI's Sync STT API and comes back as clean text — no model downloads, no separate cleanup pass.
- Small native app. The setup window, overlay, hotkey, and paste flow are built for macOS.
- Actual synth cues. Start and stop can be cued by real Yamaha DX7 or Roland Juno-106 sounds, or turned off.
Blurt stores your API key in the macOS Keychain. Audio is captured only while you are dictating, then sent over HTTPS to AssemblyAI for transcription. Blurt stores no audio and no transcripts, and sends no telemetry — no crash reporting, no analytics, no usage tracking.
Because transcription is processed by AssemblyAI, their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply to that audio.
Blurt is MIT-licensed. AGENTS.md has the architecture notes and
build workflow.
scripts/bootstrap.sh # install the local toolchain
scripts/dev-build.sh # build + install Blurt to /Applications
scripts/check.sh # full repo health checkWant to build your own Swift dictation app from scratch? The pipeline —
mic capture, AssemblyAI Sync transcription, and paste-into-the-focused-app —
is a standalone, dependency-free Swift package you can embed:
BLURTENGINE.md is the developer guide.