Does Talk DAT! run on Intel Macs?
No. The Mac build targets Apple silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later, and Intel Macs are not supported. On the PC side, Windows 10 and 11 are covered by the Microsoft Store build.
Talk DAT! for Mac
Talk DAT! for Mac: dictation from the menu bar.
Talk DAT! (often written TalkDAT) is AI dictation for Windows and Mac by Knight AI+AV. Both desktop versions are in public beta. Install Windows from the Microsoft Store, or download the notarized Mac beta for Apple silicon.
Talk DAT! sits in your menu bar. Hold a key, talk, and let go: the text appears where you’re typing. In Mail, in Notes, in Safari, in Slack. You never leave the app you are writing in, and there is no transcript window to copy out of at the end.
Hold a key, talk, let go.
Talk DAT! sits in the menu bar and stays out of the way until you need it. Hold the hold-to-talk trigger and speak. The moment you release it, recognition finishes, your writing style tidies the words, and the text is typed into the app you were already in, right where your cursor sits. An email in Mail, a paragraph in Pages, a reply in Slack, a note between meetings: it works the same way in every app you write in.
There is no dictation document to manage and no paste step at the end.
Installing on a Mac.
The current Mac build is a disk image signed with a Developer ID, notarized by Apple, and supplied with a stapled notarization ticket. Download it from the official page, open the disk image, and drag Talk DAT! to Applications. macOS may show its normal first-open confirmation, then requests permissions as the related features need them: Microphone for speech capture, Input Monitoring for the global hold-to-talk trigger, and Accessibility for delivering finished text into another app.
Mac requirements. The Mac build targets Apple silicon on macOS 14 or later, and Intel Macs are not supported. If your desk also has a PC on it, the Windows speech to text page covers Windows.
Chill or Executive: pick how much it cleans up.
Talk DAT! has two writing styles, one click apart: Chill tidies your words and keeps your tone. Executive rewrites them into more formal, organized text. Teach it your names and jargon with sounds-like custom vocabulary, or switch on one of the four industry packs covered on the dictation for work page. There is also an optional tool for dictating in one language and delivering another; the voice to text translation page explains its routes and limits.
You said
"okay so um can we move thursday's call to friday morning, same link is fine, and uh can you send over the updated deck before then"
Executive mode delivered
Could we move Thursday's call to Friday morning? The same link works. Please also send over the updated deck beforehand.
Illustrative dictation. Chill would keep your phrasing and simply tidy it. You can switch between the two any time.
Your voice can stay on your Mac.
On the Local route, speech recognition runs on your own machine after a one-time model download, and keeps working offline from then on. An online route stays optional: a supported provider connected with your own API key, billed by that provider, with Knight not in the path. A bounded recovery buffer of your latest sessions stays on your Mac, for you, so a crash does not lose a long dictation.
The mic is off until you trigger it. Dictation starts when you hold the trigger and stops when you release it. In between, your speech is recognized on your own Mac, or by the provider whose key you added.
Other Mac dictation options.
macOS ships with dictation built in, and for an occasional sentence it is fine. If you dictate every day, or want a hold-to-talk key, custom words, proper formatting, or offline processing you control, you will want more. Dragon, the old professional standard, no longer offers a Mac edition at all, which left many Mac users without it; the Dragon alternative page maps those habits onto Talk DAT! one by one.
Weighing the wider market, Wispr Flow included? The comparison page puts every claim in one table and says Not confirmed wherever we could not verify a competitor's cell. Price is the other difference: Talk DAT! is free. Grab the Mac or Windows build from the download section of the homepage.
What Mac users ask before installing.
Straight answers, matching what the product actually does today.
Is the Mac download notarized by Apple?
Yes. The current disk image is signed with a Developer ID, notarized by Apple, and carries a stapled notarization ticket. Download it from the official site. macOS may still show its normal first-open confirmation and permission prompts.
Why does Talk DAT! need Accessibility and Input Monitoring permissions?
Microphone permission covers speech capture. Input Monitoring lets the global hold-to-talk trigger see its key before the app you are typing in, and Accessibility lets Talk DAT! deliver finished text into that app. Features that depend on a permission remain unavailable until it is granted.
Does Talk DAT! work offline on the Mac?
Yes, on the Local route. After a one-time model download, speech recognition runs on your own Mac and keeps working without a connection. An online route stays optional: add your own API key for a supported provider, and requests go from your Mac straight to that provider, billed by them.
How is Talk DAT! different from the dictation built into macOS?
Built-in macOS dictation is free and fine for an occasional sentence. Talk DAT! adds a hold-to-talk trigger in the menu bar, Chill and Executive writing styles that turn rough speech into clean text, custom vocabulary you can teach, industry vocabulary packs, and a Local route you control. Talk DAT! is free to download and use, and no account is needed to dictate.
Get Talk DAT! for Mac.
Download the notarized Mac public beta, hold the key, and the text appears where you’re typing. It is free, and no account is needed to dictate.