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Steno for Mac

Hold a key, speak, and the text is pasted at the cursor, transcribed on device with Whisper. Also writes timestamped meeting notes from the microphone and the Mac's sound.

By Thesimpleex. Free and open source, MIT licence.

Get it with OpenDMG View source on GitHub

Steno at a glance

Version
1.1
Released
29 September 2026
Download size
3.4 MB
Works on
Apple silicon and Intel
Licence
MIT
Category
Audio and Music
Developer
Thesimpleex
GitHub stars
13

About Steno

Free, open-source dictation and meeting notes for macOS. Hold a key, speak, and your words appear at the cursor – transcribed locally with OpenAI Whisper.

Screenshots

Steno screenshot 1Steno screenshot 2

How to install Steno on a Mac

  1. Get OpenDMG. It is a free app store for open source Mac apps. Download OpenDMG.
  2. Search for Steno and press Get. OpenDMG downloads version 1.1 from Thesimpleex's own GitHub release.
  3. Open it. The download is checked against its SHA-256 fingerprint and its signature is checked on your Mac before it lands in Applications.

Updates to Steno show up in OpenDMG and install with one button. No account is needed.

Prefer to do it by hand? The developer's file is on GitHub: Steno.dmg (3.4 MB).

What is new in Steno 1.1

<p align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Thesimpleex/steno/main/docs/demo.gif" alt="Hold the key, speak, release: the text appears at the cursor" width="640"></p>

**Steno 1.1** – meetings, sending with Return, and a notch that shows up where you are.

### New: meetings
- Transcribe a conversation with timestamps: your microphone is "You", the sound of your Mac – Teams, Zoom, the browser – is "Others", renamable per meeting. Either source can be switched off. Spotify and Apple Music are left out, so music doesn't end up in the transcript.
- ⌃⌥N adds a note while the meeting runs. An empty note sets a marker, a leading "!" makes it a task. A screenshot taken with ⌘⌃⇧4 lands in the timeline at that moment.
- Or click the meeting display at the notch: the note field opens right below it, hovering shows buttons for a note and a screenshot.
- Dictating during a meeting – say, a quick reply in another chat – stays out of the transcript.
- Every meeting is a folder on your Mac: `Protokoll.md`, `meeting.json` and the images. By default in Steno's own folder, or in any place you choose in the settings. Audio is never saved.
- Only record when everyone involved agrees.

### New in dictation
- Press Return while you are still recording: Steno pastes the text and sends it – handy for chat apps and AI assistants.
…

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