Free and open source · macOS 15 or later
A small Mac menu bar app. Option and the three keys right above it give your Mac a voice: one explains, one reads, one types what you say. A few quiet tools come with it.
Signed and notarized by Apple. Updates itself. No account, no subscription, no telemetry.
Tap the same key again to stop. Every shortcut can be changed.
Voice
No window to open and no box to paste into. Select text in Mail, Safari, Slack, a PDF or ChatGPT and press a key.
A natural ElevenLabs voice, usually in well under a second. Tables, links and Markdown are rewritten for listening. Without a key, the best Apple voice on your Mac reads instead.
Claude tells you what the text means in a few spoken sentences: what an email wants and by when, a contract's money and deadlines, an error's likely fix. Hold the key to ask a follow-up out loud.
Hold, talk, let go. Your words are transcribed, cleaned up and pasted where you were typing, in about 0.8 seconds. Punctuation, casing and misheard words are fixed for you. The key is the one right of the period: - on German keyboards, / on US.
Smart read, made for AI chat
In the ChatGPT, Claude, Codex and Gemini apps, smart read speaks the reply as that assistant, in first person, and ends on what it needs from you. Then hold the key and answer back by voice.
Tools
Each one is a menu bar item, a switch in Settings and nothing more. They show up when they have something to tell you.
Your next Google Calendar meeting appears ten minutes before it starts. One click joins the Meet, Zoom, Teams or Webex call. Focus time, all-day events and declined invites are skipped.
More about MeetingsThe time where your team, clients or family are, next to yours, each with its flag. Add a clock by city, country, abbreviation or time zone.
More about ClocksSmall black wings at the notch while VibeFlow listens, thinks or speaks. Macs without a notch get the same shape in the menu bar.
Every read and every answer, kept on your Mac for as long as you choose. Read again, copy or delete.
New versions install in the background while you're away from the keyboard, never mid-read.
Restored after every copy and paste. Never pastes into a password field or a window you left.
Records on the built-in mic so your headphones stay in high-quality mode. Or pick a microphone yourself.
A missing permission shows in the menu with a button straight to the right System Settings page.
Pricing
VibeFlow costs nothing and has no subscription. Out of the box it reads with an Apple voice and dictates on device (macOS 26). Add a key to unlock more; you pay the provider directly, and most have a free tier. Keys live in your Keychain.
| Key | Unlocks | Without it | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | The natural reading voice | The best Apple voice on your Mac | Free allowance |
| Anthropic | Smart read and follow-up questions | Plain reading only | Pay as you go |
| Groq | Fast dictation with cleanup | Apple's on-device recognizer (macOS 26) | Free tier |
| Google sign-in | Meetings | No meeting item | Free |
Privacy
There is no VibeFlow server. Text goes straight from your Mac to the provider you chose, only when you press a key. The code is public, so you can check.
| When you | What is sent, and to whom |
|---|---|
| Read | The selected text, to ElevenLabs. With an Apple voice: nothing. |
| Smart read | The selected text, to Anthropic, then the brief to ElevenLabs. |
| Dictate | Your recording, to Groq. Without Groq on macOS 26: nothing, it stays on device. |
| Meetings | Nothing. Your calendars are read from Google, read-only, and kept in memory. |
| Never | History, recordings and keys. They stay on your Mac. |
No. Without any key VibeFlow reads with an Apple voice, dictates on device on macOS 26, and the clocks work. Keys unlock the ElevenLabs voice, smart read and faster dictation, and you pay those providers directly.
Yes. VibeFlow uses the position, not the character: the three keys right above Option, next to M. On a German keyboard that is comma, period and minus; on a US keyboard comma, period and slash.
Apple silicon and Intel Macs with macOS 15 Sequoia or later.
To read the text you selected in other apps and to paste dictation where you were typing. It acts only when you press one of its keys.
VibeFlow checks every few hours and installs a new version while you're away from the keyboard. Check for Updates… in the menu looks right away.
Store apps run in a sandbox that blocks global shortcuts and reading other apps' selections. VibeFlow is signed and notarized by Apple instead, and MIT licensed.
Free, open source, and it keeps itself up to date.
Download for MacVersion 1.4.0 · macOS 15 or later · What's new