Dictation app for Mac
Mumbli is a menu bar dictation app for macOS. It stays out of your way until you need it — then turns speech into clean text in under a second.Menu bar, not another window
Mumbli runs as a menu bar app. No Dock icon, no window to manage. Click the menu bar icon to see your dictation history, adjust settings, or quit. That’s it. When you’re dictating, a small overlay appears near your cursor — just enough to know Mumbli is listening. It disappears the moment you stop.Two activation modes
| Mode | How | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Hold mode | Press and hold Fn | Quick phrases, replies, short dictation |
| Hands-free | Double-tap Fn | Longer dictation, thinking out loud, when your hands are busy |
AI-powered, not basic
Most dictation tools give you raw speech-to-text. Mumbli adds a polishing layer:- Filler words removed — “um”, “uh”, “like” are stripped automatically
- Self-corrections applied — “Tuesday, wait, Wednesday” becomes “Wednesday”
- Grammar cleaned up — Punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure
- Your voice preserved — The polisher cleans, it doesn’t rewrite
Use cases
Universal text input
Any app, any text field. Browser, email, Slack, IDE, terminal — if there’s a cursor, Mumbli works.
Accessibility
For users with RSI, physical limitations, or temporary injuries. Reliable enough to be your primary input method.
Thinking out loud
Speak a stream of consciousness into a note. The polisher cleans it up enough to be readable without losing the raw thought.
Quick replies
In a messaging app or email, speak your reply instead of typing. Faster for anything longer than a few words.
Dictation history
Every dictation is saved locally with a timestamp. Access it from the menu bar dropdown:- Click any entry to copy it to your clipboard
- Most recent entries appear first
- History persists across app restarts
- All data stays on your machine
Safety built in
Mumbli guards against LLM hallucination with three layers:- XML boundaries between system instructions and your speech
- Injection-hardened prompts that prevent the LLM from inventing content
- RepetitionGuard that catches runaway output and falls back to raw transcription
Requirements
- macOS 13.0+ (Ventura or later)
- Your own API keys for transcription (ElevenLabs or Groq) and polishing (OpenAI or Groq)
- Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring permissions
Download Mumbli
Free and open source. Get the latest DMG from GitHub Releases.