Two one-time downloads.
The optional Kokoro voice, about 340 MB from GitHub. And on macOS 26 or later, Apple’s speech model, which macOS fetches itself. Text, audio and screenshots are never uploaded.
Kokoro.swiftFree text to speech and dictation for Mac
You talk. It types.
It talks. You listen.
⌥SHold and talk to type into any app.
⌥APress, then draw a box around any text to hear it read aloud.
Free and open source · Your words stay on your Mac · macOS 15+ · Apple silicon
Hold ⌥S. Talk.
Re: Thursday offsite
To:Priya Shah
Subject:Re: Thursday offsite
On 13 Oct 2026, at 9:41 AM, Priya Shah wrote:Hi all, the offsite has moved to the fourth floor. Bring a laptop and your third quarter numbers. Lunch is at noon, and we should wrap up by four.
Hold ⌥ SIn any app
TalkWords appear as you speak
Let goIt’s typed where your cursor is
Press ⌥A. Listen.
Drag over the text to read escto cancel
Press ⌥ AIn any app
DragOver any text
ListenOnly that part is read
Speak anywhere.
Every example is a real transcript from YapYap’s dictation.
Messages
Reply without typing.
13 October 2026 at 4:20 PM
Launch
Notes
Get ideas down as fast as you have them.
# engineering
D
Dana
Login is broken for some people on staging.
Team chat
Post an update without leaving your code.
Letter to Dr. Lee
Dear Dr. Lee,
Documents
Write letters and reports out loud.
Today
Pick up dry cleaning
Renew passport
Reminders
Add a to-do in a second.
yapyap — zsh
~/yapyap % git add Sources
~/yapyap % git commit -m ""
Terminal
Even commit messages.
Reads every app.
PSPriya ShahThursday offsiteTo: Design Team
Hi all, the offsite has moved to the fourth floor. Bring a laptop and your third quarter numbers. Lunch is at noon, and we should wrap up by four.
Listen while you do something else.
recall-study.pdfPage 1 of 8
Sleep and Recall in Adult Learners
Adults who slept within three hours of a study session recalled more of the material a week later. The effect was largest for new vocabulary. Participants who stayed awake showed no gain from extra review time. We discuss what this means for evening classes and for learners who work night shifts.
PDFs
Columns read in the right order.
Chats
In order, with links skipped.
weekly.example
The WeeklyNews · Culture · Opinion · Sport
Culture
The quiet return of the public library
Visits are up for the third year in a row. People come for the free rooms, the fast internet and, more and more, the books.
Web pages
The article, not the ads.
IMG_204112 Oct 2026
4.2 PhotosynthesisPlants use energy from light to turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar. Oxygen is released as a by-product.
Photos
Even text inside images.
Pride and PrejudiceAa
Chapter 1
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
1 of 312
Books
Follow along at your own pace.
Privacy
What you read and say never leaves your Mac.
You don’t have to take our word for it. Here is what the code does, and how to check.
Screenshots stay in memory.
Each read takes one still image of the window or box you chose. macOS’s Vision framework turns it into text, then the image is thrown away.
Capture.swiftYour voice stays on your Mac.
Dictation uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition, and the optional tidy-up uses Apple Intelligence on your Mac. The mic is on only while you hold the shortcut, and audio is never saved.
Dictation.swiftNo account. Anonymous stats you can switch off.
YapYap sends anonymous counts, like how many words were read, through TelemetryDeck. Never what you read or say, or which app it was in. Turn it off in Settings → Privacy.
Telemetry.swiftCheck it yourself.
- Search the code. YapYap’s own network code fits on three lines. The only other connection is TelemetryDeck’s anonymous stats.
- Turn off Wi‑Fi. Once the voice and speech model are installed, reading and dictation work exactly the same.
- Watch the traffic. Run a network monitor such as LuLu while YapYap reads or listens. Turn stats off and nothing else goes out.
$ grep -rnE 'URLSession\(|https://' Sources
AppModel.swift:348 session = URLSession(configuration: …)
Kokoro.swift:253 "https://media.githubusercontent.com/…/kokoro-v1_0.safetensors"
Kokoro.swift:254 "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/…/voices.npz"
Open source
Free, and every line will be on GitHub.
The full source code goes up on GitHub the day YapYap launches.
- Swift & SwiftUI
- Vision
- Speech
- MLX
- Kokoro-82M
$ git clone $ cd yapyap $ scripts/build-app.sh --install
Questions and answers.
What is YapYap?
YapYap is a free, open-source Mac app that does two things. It reads any text on your screen aloud, highlighting each word as it’s spoken, and it types what you say into any app. Reading and dictation both run on your Mac, with no account.
How do I get my Mac to read text aloud with YapYap?
Press ⌥A, then drag a box around the text you want to hear. YapYap finds the words, even in screenshots, PDFs and photos, and reads them aloud while a highlight follows each word on the original page. Press Esc to stop.
How does dictation work?
Hold ⌥S and talk. Your words appear live in a small panel at the bottom of the screen. Let go and YapYap types the text wherever your cursor is, in any app. It can drop filler words and tidy the text with Apple Intelligence, on your Mac.
Does YapYap send my voice or screen anywhere?
No. Text on screen is recognised with Apple’s Vision framework, dictation uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition, and the voices run locally. YapYap only sends anonymous usage counts, never content, and you can turn that off in Settings.
Does YapYap work offline?
Yes. Once the optional Kokoro voice and macOS’s speech model are installed, reading and dictation both work with Wi‑Fi turned off. Without the Kokoro voice, YapYap reads with the voices built into macOS.
Which Macs does YapYap run on?
YapYap needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later on a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer). It asks for Screen Recording permission to read, and Microphone and Accessibility permission to dictate.
What languages does YapYap support?
The natural Kokoro voices speak US and UK English. Dictation uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition for your Mac’s language where Apple supports it. YapYap is designed and tested in English.
How is YapYap different from Speechify or Wispr Flow?
YapYap is free and open source, with no subscription. It handles both reading aloud and dictation in one app, and it does both on your Mac instead of sending your text or voice to a server.
When can I download YapYap?
YapYap is in final testing and isn’t available to download yet. At launch it will be free to download from this site, with the full source code on GitHub.
