How to transcribe online calls on your Mac, locally
To transcribe a call an app has to hear two things: you and the call. A dictation app only hears your microphone, so with headphones on it never hears the other side. Here are three ways to get both, with your audio staying on your Mac.
Dictate
Dictate is the app I made for this. It records your microphone and the call's audio separately, so every line is labeled Me or Call. When a call starts it asks you before it records. No bot joins. It works with Zoom, Teams, Slack, Discord, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Webex, Skype and Element, and calls in a browser tab such as Meet.
Your calls are kept in History and can be searched. Your agents can read them through a server on your Mac. It's a dictation app too. Free forever for the first 50 early access users.
Blend Mic and Handy, for free
Blend Mic is a free, open source (MIT) virtual microphone I made. It mixes your voice and the call into one mic, so a dictation app like Handy transcribes both sides on your Mac. Handy is free and open source too, and one of my all-time favorites.
- In Blend Mic, make a mix with your microphone and System audio.
- In Handy or OpenSuperWhisper, pick that mix as the microphone.
- Leave the call app on your usual microphone.
MacWhisper Pro
MacWhisper is a great transcription app, and Pro ($75 or €64 once) records meetings with no bot. It labels your side with your name and everyone else as one speaker, and its speaker recognition can split the speakers in a transcript. It runs local models, or cloud providers with your own keys.
Which one fits
- Dictate: you want your side and the call kept apart. Your calls and dictations sit in one searchable place that your agent can read.
- Blend Mic and Handy: you want it free and open source, and one transcript with both sides is enough.
- MacWhisper Pro: you want the other speakers told apart.
Whichever you pick, ask before you record. Don't record if they say no.