What's new in YapToText

YapToText is at version 1.4 (14). This is the full changelog, newest first, from the first build, 1.0 (1), to 1.4 (14); the number in parentheses is the build number. The Mac App Store and Homebrew ship the same version, so these notes apply however you installed.

The same list opens from the version number in the app's Home header. If a release broke something for you, tell me on the GitHub issues page.

1.4 (14)

• Spoken punctuation follows the standard dictation convention: is it working now, question mark becomes “is it working now?” with no stray mark.
• A punctuation name mid-sentence stays a word; it becomes the mark only at the end of a clause.
• Auto-amplify measures your voice against the room, not a fixed level; the app warns when the Mac's input volume is low and can raise it.
• Cleanup no longer drops a sentence or adds an ellipsis you did not say.
• A long dictation ending in silence no longer repeats its last sentence; long dictations clean up faster.
• Fixed a crash when changing the input device; the microphone meter follows the chosen input.
• Fixed hallucinated speaker labels like “Male speaker:” in transcripts and learned vocabulary.
• Intelligent insert reads around the cursor more reliably in web and Electron apps, with fewer keystrokes and beeps; a notice explains how to silence the beep.
• The menu bar spinner shows on a light menu bar; light mode has a firmer window background and clearer card edges.
• Faster first dictation after idle; the microphone lets go after every dictation.
• Restore Defaults in Settings > Advanced puts every setting back, with confirmation and Undo.
• The Homebrew build can use the microphone.

1.3.1 (12)

• Dictation over twice as fast with a new default speech model; the app is about a gigabyte smaller.
• Intelligent insert is faster and works in far more apps.
• Your clipboard is handed back right after a paste.
• Auto mode no longer makes a list on its own.
• Energy settings switch the cleanup model too, not just the dictation model.
• The AI Models page shows what each model is for, with accuracy and speed ratings.
• Rewritten in-app Help for Quick Edit, intelligent insert, and energy.
• Fewer system beeps in apps that cannot expose text around the cursor.
• Installable with Homebrew.
• Bug fixes, including the menu bar spinner running backwards.

1.3 (9)

1.3 shipped the same work as 1.3.1 but bundled the wrong speech model, so the speed and size gains only really arrive in 1.3.1.

• Dictation over twice as fast.
• Lighter default speech model; the app is 1GB smaller.
• Background noise removed before transcribing.
• Learns your vocabulary from recent dictations.
• Smarter, faster text insertion.
• Smoother animations and many small fixes.

1.2 (8)

• Dramatically faster from stop to text: cleanup reuses its work, both models warm up at launch, needless passes trimmed.
• A master switch turns off post-transcription analysis for the fastest raw transcription.
• Your dictionary shapes what the app hears, not just what it types; fix a misheard word twice and it offers to remember it.
• A microphone health check in Settings, with tips.
• Better accuracy in noisy rooms and for fast speech; words finished at the stop key are no longer clipped.
• The waveform responds the instant you talk; the pop-up collapses the moment you stop.
• Energy-aware transcription: the full model plugged in, a lighter one on battery, automatically or per mode, plus an Energy page that reads your Mac and recommends models.
• Long recordings stream out as you go, cut at natural pauses.
• Ending a dictation never starts media that was not playing; a paused player resumes only if the app paused it.
• Intelligent insert adapts to surrounding text in more apps, including web editors.
• Fixed a freeze at dictation start while checking Music.

1.1.1 (6)

• The microphone releases about a second after a dictation ends; the orange indicator only shows while you dictate.
• “Keep the microphone warm” genuinely lets go when off or when its standby window ends.
• Launch and app switching never touch the microphone.
• Releasing a hold-to-talk key always ends the session, even mid-startup.
• The pop-up opens the same way every time; inserting text no longer stalls its closing animation.
• Intelligent insert reads surrounding text more reliably.

1.1 (4)

• Quick Edit: select text in any app, press your key, say the change.
• Voice corrections: scratch that, replace X with Y, add this to my dictionary.
• Rebuilt listening engine: noisy rooms, whispers, and shouting transcribe cleanly.
• Auto-gain with a peak guard and soft limiter; loud speech never distorts.
• Deeper decoding in noise recovers dropped words; fast speech gets a second listen.
• Long pauses compressed; silence and noise insert nothing.
• The half-second before your key press is captured, so first words are never clipped.
• Any key can be a trigger, not just modifiers; conflicts are flagged red.
• Intelligent insert: mid-sentence dictation adapts case, spacing, and punctuation.
• Insert Last types into the app you were just using.
• Dictation never touches other apps' audio; media pause only triggers for real players.
• Re-choreographed pop-up: the wave winds into a spinning ring while it thinks.
• Cleanup much faster after the first run; lower idle CPU.
• Separate accent, pop-up, and waveform colors, plus full RGB.
• An AI cleanup toggle per mode; bring your own Whisper or GGUF models.
• Crash recovery from the first moment of audio; Quick Edit commands stay out of History.
• VoiceOver announces every state; pop-up controls are accessibility actions.
• Dozens of fixes, including cleanup never paraphrasing your words.

1.0 (3)

• Released on the Mac App Store.
• Recording pop-up polish: cleaner edges and sizing.
• Cleanup prompts tuned to preserve your exact wording and tone.
• Faster from stopping a dictation to text on screen.

1.0 (2)

• Auto mode routes each dictation to the right treatment on its own, and the destination app counts: Mail leans email, Messages stays casual, editors lean code.
• End a dictation with make that formal or as a bullet list to steer the result.
• Select text first and Auto mode shapes your dictation as a reply.
• Tap a bare modifier key, like Right Command, to start and stop dictation.
• Redesigned menu bar popover with regenerate options.
• Smoother live text animation while transcribing.
• Welcome tour and dictionary improvements.
• Heavy new automated test suites for cleanup quality.

1.0 (1)

• The first YapToText build: free, on-device dictation for the Mac.
• Whisper transcription entirely on your Mac; nothing ever leaves it.
• Cleanup with a bundled on-device model.
• Modes: Raw, Clean Up, Note, Email, Message, and Code.
• Dictionaries, spoken commands, history, and statistics.

Questions

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