How to dictate into any Mac app
Do I need a plugin or integration for each app I want to dictate into?
No. WisprBee runs at the operating-system level, so it works in any text field on macOS with no per-app setup — the same key works in Slack, Gmail, Cursor, Notion, Linear, a browser form, or a terminal. It needs exactly two macOS permissions to do this: microphone access to hear you, and Accessibility access, which is the permission macOS requires before any application can insert text into another application's field.
Step by step
- 01
Install WisprBee
Open the .dmg and drag WisprBee into your Applications folder.
- 02
Grant microphone access
Approve the microphone prompt during setup, or enable WisprBee under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
- 03
Grant Accessibility access
Approve the Accessibility prompt, or enable WisprBee under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. Without this, dictation only works inside WisprBee itself.
- 04
Click into any text field and hold your key
Release, and the finished writing lands at your cursor — suited to whichever app is in front of you.
Worth knowing
- Nothing is captured unless you are holding the key. WisprBee is push-to-talk, not always-listening.
- Your clipboard is borrowed to paste and then restored, so whatever you had copied survives the dictation.
- The download is signed with Apple Developer ID and notarized, so it opens the way any other Mac app does — no Terminal command, no security warning to click through.
Terms used here
- Accessibility permission (macOS) — Accessibility permission is the macOS privacy control that allows an application to observe and control other applications — including inserting text into another app's fields. macOS requires it for any tool that types on your behalf outside its own window, which is why every system-wide text utility has to ask for it.
- Push-to-talk — Push-to-talk is an input pattern where audio is captured only while a key is physically held down, and capture ends when it is released. Compared with a toggle, it removes the failure mode of a microphone left recording, and it makes the end of the utterance explicit rather than guessed from silence.
- Notarization (macOS) — Notarization is Apple's automated security check of a macOS application, after which Gatekeeper will open the app without warning the user. An app that has not completed it may be reported as “damaged” or unverified, which reflects the missing check rather than a problem with the file.