macOS has had dictation for years and almost nobody uses it twice: it types what you said rather than what you meant, and you tidy up afterwards. ahsk is the version that finishes the job — fillers and self-corrections removed, punctuation and paragraphs added, your own names spelled right, pasted where your cursor already is. It is the oldest of the three ahsk apps and the one the others are ported from.
One key, and everything starts from it
Hold fn and talk; release and the text lands at your cursor. Tap fn instead and it keeps listening hands-free until you tap again, ending itself after thirty seconds of silence so an accidental tap cannot hold the mic open. Add a second key while you hold: fn + Control asks a question by voice and opens an answer with sources, fn + Shift translates — speak your language, paste the other one — and fn + Option is Respond, which looks at what is on your screen and answers about it. Hold fn over an open answer card to ask the next question in the same conversation.
Typed, not transcribed
Anything of seven words or more is cleaned up before it is pasted, and a voice mode decides the shape: a message stays a message, Mail comes out as an email with a greeting and a sign-off, Notes comes out as bullets. Your dictionary teaches the transcriber the names, brands and jargon that dictation usually mangles, and ahsk also learns quietly: correct a word after it is pasted and the respelling is remembered. Only the word pair is stored, on your Mac, in Application Support — never the text of the field you were typing in.
Meeting notes, without a bot in the call
Press Option + Shift + R when a call starts and ahsk records both sides — your microphone and the Mac's own output, taken digitally, so Zoom, Teams and Meet are covered whether you are on speakers or headphones. Nothing joins the meeting and no link is shared. Press it again, or click the REC pill, and the recording comes back as a summary, key points, decisions, checkbox action items, a mind map and the full transcript, in Settings › Notes and as Markdown in Documents/ahsk meetings. Every account includes ten hours of recording a month. Dictation keeps working while a meeting records. Needs macOS 14.2 or later; the first recording asks for the system-audio permission.
A launcher, and the small tools around it
Command + Space opens one bar over whatever you are working in: launch an app, find a file, search the web by keyword, do the maths, paste a snippet, reach back through your clipboard history, or ask AI without opening a browser tab. Select text anywhere and a bubble offers Ask, Rewrite, Copy and Add to dictionary. Option + Shift + D saves a video from a link — ahsk keeps its own downloader up to date, so it does not break the week YouTube changes something.
It keeps recording when your Mac changes
Close the lid, switch to AirPods mid-sentence, plug in a USB mic: the recording continues. ahsk watches whether audio is actually arriving rather than whether the microphone claims to be open, and reopens or moves to a working input when it is not — a microphone that has gone silent is a common failure that most dictation apps never notice. It never changes your system input device, so it does not fight macOS or your meeting app for the mic.
Requirements and the honest caveats
macOS 11 Big Sur or later, Apple silicon or Intel; meeting notes need macOS 14.2. The app is signed and notarised and updates itself. Two things worth knowing: macOS may already own the fn / 🌐 key for the emoji picker or input-source switching, in which case ahsk shows you the setting to change (System Settings › Keyboard › "Press 🌐 to" → Do Nothing) and the key is yours; and a few apps refuse a direct text insert, where ahsk falls back to the clipboard and puts what it borrowed back afterwards.
Same account, three devices
One ahsk account covers Mac, Windows and iPhone. Your plan, your dictionary and your voice mode travel with you. Pro is €9.99 a month for all three; the free tier is 10,000 dictated words with no card.
Key Features
Hold fn to talk
Push-to-talk into any app. Release, and it's typed at the cursor.
Tap fn for hands-free
Keeps listening after you let go. Tap again to stop and paste.
fn + Shift to translate
Speak in your language, paste in theirs, in the app you are already in.
fn + Control to ask
A question by voice, an answer with sources, no browser tab.
fn + Option for what is on screen
Respond reads the window in front of you and answers about it.
Option + Shift + R for meeting notes
Records mic and system audio, then writes the summary and action items.
Command + Space launcher
Apps, files, web search, snippets, clipboard history and Ask AI in one bar.
A dictionary that learns
Fix a spelling once and ahsk keeps it — stored on your Mac, never uploaded.
Install ahsk for Mac
Free for 10,000 words, no card. Hold fn and say a sentence into whatever you have open.
Download for MacRelated guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ahsk for Mac free?
Yes to start: 10,000 dictated words free, no card, and they do not expire. Pro is €9.99 a month and the same subscription covers Windows and iPhone.
Does it replace Apple's dictation?
It sits alongside it. ahsk uses the fn key and does not touch Apple's settings, so both keep working and you can compare them on the same sentence. Most people stop reaching for the built-in one within a week.
Pressing fn opens the emoji picker instead. Can I fix it?
Yes, and ahsk warns you about it during setup. macOS assigns the fn / 🌐 key to the emoji picker or the input-source switcher on many keyboards, and it takes the press before any app sees it. Open System Settings › Keyboard, set "Press 🌐 to" to Do Nothing, and the key is yours. ahsk re-checks the setting and clears the warning by itself.
Does it work in every app?
Yes — Mail, Slack, Xcode, Notion, a comment box inside a PDF, a web page in Safari. ahsk inserts the text directly where it can and falls back to the clipboard where an app refuses, restoring whatever you had copied afterwards.
How do I update it?
ahsk updates itself in the background and tells you once the new version is running. You can also download the latest DMG from this page at any time.
