macOS menu bar app

Speak.
Text appears.

Hlas lives in your menu bar. Press a hotkey to dictate wherever your cursor is, or record a meeting with microphone and system audio together. Calendar reminders can prompt you when a matching meeting starts. Run WhisperKit or Parakeet v3 entirely on your Mac, with your own remote Parakeet server available when you want to offload dictation.

Download for macOS

macOS 14+ Sonoma · Apple Silicon

Hlas lives here
Feb 22 16:20
Hlas app icon — roaring cat with audio waveform
// why hlas

"Hlas" means voice in Czech. This is the voice input macOS deserves.

No app to switch to. No window to manage. Hlas sits silently in your menu bar until you need it. One hotkey activates dictation. Your words flow directly into whatever app you are using -- browser, IDE, notes, Slack, anywhere.

// activation

One hotkey. Instant dictation.

⌘ Cmd
+
⇧ Shift
+
X

Press → Speak → Text appears at your cursor → Done.

The hotkey is fully configurable. Switch between push-to-talk and toggle mode from the main popover, and assign a separate shortcut for meeting recording.

// live preview

See it in action

hlas — dictation
Transcribing...
Engine: Local Lang: Auto Model: Parakeet v3
hlas — translation
Translating...
Engine: On-device Lang: DE → EN Mode: Apple Translation
// features

Everything voice input needs

01

Menu Bar Native

Lives in your menu bar. No dock icon or full app window to manage. Dictation and meeting controls sit side by side in the main popover, with live audio-level feedback while recording.

Core
02

Three Transcription Paths

Choose local WhisperKit, native Parakeet v3 on the Apple Neural Engine, or your own remote Parakeet server. Switch when your workflow changes.

Engine
03

60+ Languages

WhisperKit covers 60+ languages. Parakeet v3 automatically recognizes 25 European languages with no manual model switching.

Languages
04

Smart Text Processing

Automatic filler word removal (um, uh, like), smart punctuation insertion, and a personal dictionary for names and technical terms.

Text
05

Built-in Translation

Speak in one language, get text in another. Use Whisper's English translation or Apple Translation with either local engine on macOS 15+.

Translate
06

Works Everywhere

Text is inserted wherever your cursor is. Browsers, IDEs, notes apps, Slack, email -- any text field in any application.

Universal
07

Meeting Recording

Record microphone and system audio together from the main popover, menu bar menu, or an optional hotkey. Hlas mixes both tracks, transcribes the meeting locally, and saves the result to History. System-audio capture requires macOS 14.4+.

Meetings
08

Calendar Recording Reminders

Choose which calendars to watch, filter events by title keywords, and optionally require a Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Webex link. Start recording from the notification, or enable a cancellable 10-second auto-start countdown. Hlas must be running.

Calendar
09

Clear Permission Recovery

See live Microphone and Accessibility status, jump directly to the right System Settings pane, and rerun the setup assistant after a permission reset. A menu bar badge warns you if required access is revoked.

macOS
// transcription engines

Three paths. Your choice.

Two run entirely on your Mac. One connects to infrastructure you control.

Local / Flexible

WhisperKit

Choose from several Whisper model sizes and run transcription entirely on your Mac. Best when broad language coverage and built-in English translation matter.

  • 60+ supported languages
  • Multiple model sizes
  • Whisper English translation
  • Runs fully on-device
  • Audio stays on your Mac
Local / Fast

Parakeet v3

Run NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 natively through FluidAudio and CoreML. The model is optimized for Apple Silicon and cached after the first download.

  • 25 European languages
  • Automatic language detection
  • Apple Neural Engine inference
  • Works offline after download
  • Audio stays on your Mac
Self-hosted

Remote Parakeet

Point Hlas at your own Parakeet server and move transcription off the Mac. It is the same simple workflow, backed by an NVIDIA GPU you operate.

  • Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3
  • NVIDIA / CUDA acceleration
  • Server address you control
  • No local model load
  • WhisperKit fallback for meetings
// languages

Speak your language

60+ with WhisperKit · 25 European languages with Parakeet v3

English Czech German French Spanish Italian Portuguese Dutch Polish Russian Ukrainian Japanese Chinese Korean Arabic Hindi Turkish Vietnamese Thai Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Hungarian Romanian Bulgarian Croatian Greek Hebrew Indonesian Malay Catalan Welsh Swahili + 25 more
// compatibility

Works with every app

Text appears wherever your cursor is. No plugins, no integrations needed.

S Safari
C Chrome
VS VS Code
Xc Xcode
N Notes
Sl Slack
No Notion
M Mail
P Pages
T Terminal
Fi Figma
* Any App
// technical

Under the hood

60+

Languages

LOCAL

Offline Capable

3

Transcription Paths

14+

macOS Version

ANE

Neural Engine

100%

Private (Local)

// text processing

Raw speech. Clean text.

Filler Word Removal

um so like I was thinking uh that we should um probably like update the um design
I was thinking that we should probably update the design

Smart Punctuation

hey can you send me that file i need it by tomorrow also dont forget the meeting
Hey, can you send me that file? I need it by tomorrow. Also, don't forget the meeting.

Personal Dictionary

we need to update the hlaz app and push to ex code
We need to update the Hlas app and push to Xcode.

Translation

[Speaking in German] "Ich muss das Design aktualisieren"
I need to update the design
Hlas // get started

Your voice.
Your text.

Free to download. Start dictating in seconds.

Download Hlas

macOS 14+ Sonoma · Apple Silicon · Models download on demand

// tip

macOS may show “App Damaged” or “Could not verify safe.” Run this after install to fix it:

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hlas.app