WhatDidYouSay - A private Mac app that transcribes and translates voice notes without uploading them

Thanks a lot! Transcription quality is generally strong because it uses Whisper locally, but as with any transcription app it can depend on the audio quality, background noise, accents, overlapping speech, etc. I haven’t had any problems so far, but I would say that 😂

Thanks, that’s exactly how I feel about it too. “Local” only really means something if the core workflow stays local, so both the transcription and translation are handled on the Mac rather than sending the file off somewhere. That was the main principle behind it: if someone is dropping in a private voice note, recording or video, they should know where that file is staying.

Thanks, really good question. The translation is local too. It doesn’t send the transcript to a translation API. The idea was that the privacy story only really works if both parts happen on-device, so WDYS uses local transcription and local bundled translation models. On mixed-language audio, it depends a bit on the file. If there’s a clear dominant language with occasional code-switching, it can usually still produce something useful. If people are constantly switching languages mid-sentence, it can get less reliable, which is true of a lot of transcription tools. That’s definitely an area I want to keep improving because, as you say, it’s a very real use case. The app is mainly built around the “I’ve been sent this voice note/audio/video and need to understand it” workflow, so feedback on mixed-language files would be genuinely useful.

Thanks, that’s exactly the kind of use case I built it for. 10–15 minute recordings should generally be fine, especially on newer Macs. Because everything is running locally, performance does depend a bit on the machine, the file size, and the audio format, but it isn’t limited to short clips or quick voice notes. Longer recordings can take more time to process, obviously, but the aim is for it to handle normal voice memos and recordings without the whole convert/upload/copy/paste workflow. I’d definitely be interested to hear how it performs on your WhatsApp voice notes, especially with the mix of languages.

Thanks, exactly. Local-first was the main principle behind it. For this kind of thing, especially voice notes or recordings that might be personal, private, work-related, or in another language, I didn’t want the default workflow to be “upload it somewhere and hope for the best”. Keeping transcription and translation on the Mac makes the app simpler, but also much easier to trust.

Thanks! At the moment it doesn’t record system audio directly. It’s currently built around file-based transcription, so you drop in an audio or video file and it transcribes/translates that locally. So for that Stanford lecture use case, if you already had the video/audio file saved, WDYS could work with that. But it won’t currently listen to YouTube/system audio live and capture it in the background. That said, I can definitely see the value in a “record system audio → transcribe” workflow for lectures, meetings, note-taking, etc. It’s a really good future feature idea.

Thanks for the feedback - I'll get that British English update sorted for the future.

That’s fair to ask. I’m actually testing on an M1 Mac myself and haven’t had that issue. Performance has been solid for normal voice notes and recordings, although it will always depend a bit on file length, audio quality, and what else the machine is doing at the time. The app uses local Whisper for transcription, so the trade-off is that it avoids uploading private audio anywhere, but it does use your Mac’s own processing power. For me, that’s been worth it, especially for personal voice notes and files I wouldn’t want to send to a cloud service. I’m also trying to keep the app focused and lightweight rather than turning it into a huge AI suite.

I haven’t used MacWhisper enough to make a detailed feature-by-feature comparison, so I don’t want to misrepresent it. My understanding is that it’s mainly a transcription tool. WDYS started from a slightly different problem: WhatsApp voice notes, especially .opus files, in another language. Before this, the workflow was usually something like: save the voice note convert the .opus file transcribe it somewhere copy the transcript translate it somewhere else then clean it up WDYS is built to make that one quick local workflow instead: drop in the WhatsApp voice note/audio/video, transcribe it, translate it, then copy or export the result. So the difference is less “better transcription tool” and more “faster all-in-one workflow for understanding voice notes and files in another language”, with everything running locally.

Yes for transcription, with a caveat. WDYS uses Whisper locally, and Welsh is supported by Whisper. I wouldn’t want to overpromise on accuracy though, as Welsh can vary depending on accent, audio quality and language detection. Translation is separate and depends on the local translation models, so I’d treat Welsh translation as something to test rather than promise.

Thanks, appreciate that. At the moment it doesn’t export SRT or VTT, it’s more focused on getting a readable transcript/translation that you can copy or export as text. That said, SRT/VTT support makes a lot of sense, especially for video workflows, subtitles and language learning. It’s definitely one of the features I’m considering adding next.

Good points. The files stay on-device, and that’s central to the app. Transcription and translation both run locally rather than sending the audio/video off somewhere. At the moment WDYS is more focused on the quick file → transcript → translation → copy/export workflow than being a full transcript editor. Corrections/editing is something I’m looking at though, especially for names, terminology and export cleanup, because you’re right: trust and control matter a lot with local transcription tools.