Aqua Voice, or dictation that works with the Wi-Fi off
Deixis is dictation for your Mac that never needs the network to hear you. Hold Ctrl+Option,
speak, release, and clean, punctuated text lands at the cursor in whatever app has focus, with your
clipboard handed back. The recognition runs on your Mac, on Apple Silicon, so no audio leaves it.
There is no account, no word count, and everything that runs on your Mac is free.
Aqua Voice, the Mac-first dictation app, is built the other way, and its own Mac page says so: Aqua processes audio in the cloud, where its model runs, and there is no offline mode. The free Starter plan is 1,000 words, which the same page reckons at about seven minutes of talking, and then it is a subscription.
Aqua is fast and polished, and where it does something Deixis does not, forty-nine languages, words that appear while you are still talking, Intel Macs, this page says so first. But the two disagree at the root about whether your voice has to go somewhere to become text, and no setting changes that.
Why switch
What you gain, and what you give up
Why Deixis
- It works with the Wi-Fi off. Recognition happens inside the app on your Mac, so on a train, on a plane or on hotel Wi-Fi that drops every ten minutes, Deixis keeps typing. Aqua's Mac page says there is no offline mode, and its FAQ says cloud dictation needs an internet connection.
- Your transcripts are not a setting. Aqua's privacy policy says that with Privacy Mode off, it may store your transcripts on its servers to improve the product, and its own site summary says off is the default; its home page tells you to turn Privacy Mode on for nothing to be stored there. In Deixis there is nothing to turn on: no audio and no transcript goes anywhere to be kept, and the only copy is on your Mac.
- No meter, and no account to start. Aqua's Starter plan is 1,000 words on an account, about seven minutes of talking by its own reckoning. Then Pro is $10 a month, or $8 a month billed yearly, and Max $30, or $24. Deixis never asks you to sign in and never counts: dictation, free mode, screen grabs, screen recording, your history and your dictionary are free for as long as you use them. Pro, at $49 a year, is cloud cleanup with nothing to set up.
- Nothing about you goes to advertisers. Aqua's privacy policy says session metadata may still be collected with Privacy Mode on, and describes conversion measurement that can send a hashed version of your email address, with the sign-up or purchase it belongs to, to the advertising platforms it buys from: it names Google, Meta, Reddit, X, LinkedIn, OpenAI and Apple. It also says it never shares your transcripts or audio with them. Deixis sends nothing about you at all: no analytics, no identifiers, no crash reports.
- Field-aware without reading your screen. When cloud cleanup is on, Deixis sends the names of the app and the field along with your words, so an email, a chat reply and a document each come out punctuated for where they are going. Never the window title, never the text on the page, never a screenshot.
- Free mode, grabs and screen recording on the same chord. Double-tap
Ctrl+Optionand talk for as long as you like while you grab a region or take a selection; you get one note back with what you said and what you pointed at, in order.Ctrl+Option+Sfreezes the screen for a grab you can mark up with arrows, boxes, text and numbered steps, or pixelate.Ctrl+Option+Vrecords the screen to a video, narrated when a microphone is set up for it. None of that is on Aqua's pricing page. - Your history is yours to keep. Aqua's History tab keeps recent sessions' audio on your Mac for three days, per its history guide. Deixis keeps your dictation history in a window of its own and every note, grab and recording as an ordinary file in one folder, for as long as you want them.
Where Aqua Voice still wins
- Forty-nine languages, with auto-detect. Its Mac page lists 49 languages, and its language guide says it can switch between them automatically. Deixis ships English speech models only.
- Words appear as you speak. Realtime Mode, on the Max plan, shows your words in Aqua's toolbar while you talk, and its "Send it" voice command presses Return for you. Aqua's own site summary adds that this mode streams your audio to a third-party speech provider. Deixis types the finished sentence when you release the chord, and leaves the sending to you.
- Standing instructions. Custom Instructions, on Pro and above, let you set rules once, UK spelling for instance, and Aqua follows them. Deixis adapts to the app and field on its own and takes transforms you say out loud, but has no instruction you write once and keep.
- Intel Macs too. Its Mac page says one universal download runs natively on Apple Silicon and on Intel. Deixis needs an Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 13 or later.
- It can read your screen for the right words. Deep Context, when you enable it, lets Aqua use what is on screen, which its home page describes as everything from code syntax to everyday text, and its Mac page says its model was trained on real technical speech. Deixis relies on the dictionary you teach it and never reads your screen, so a name it has not met can come out wrong.
- An iPhone keyboard, an API and a student price. Aqua's iPhone keyboard is available now; Deixis's is a beta on TestFlight. Developers can call Aqua's speech model directly, and students get 70 per cent off Pro and Max.
What you get
More than dictation, on your Mac.
Hold Ctrl+Option and speak, or press a letter while you hold it: free mode, a grab, a screen recording. All of it on your Mac, all of it free, none of it behind an account.
Dictation, where your cursor is
Hold Ctrl+Option, speak, release. Clean, punctuated text lands in whatever app has focus on your Mac, with your clipboard handed back.
Free mode: talk and point
Double-tap the chord and narrate for as long as you like while you grab a region or take a selection. One note, what you said interleaved with what you pointed at, pasted where you finish and saved as Markdown.
Screen grabs, annotated
Freeze the screen at the keypress, drag a region, add arrows, boxes, text and numbered steps, and pixelate what is private. Saved as a PNG in a folder you own.
Screen recording
Record the screen, pause when you need to, and stop. The video is a file in a folder on your Mac, not in somebody else's cloud.
Side by side
Aqua Voice and Deixis, side by side
| Row | Deixis | Aqua Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Mac, on Apple Silicon with macOS 13 or later, and the same app on Windows 10 and 11 and on Android, with an iPhone keyboard in beta on TestFlight. One engine on all of them, and dictation audio never leaves the device. | macOS (one universal download for Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows 10 and 11, iOS |
| Speech recognition happens | On your own device, inside the app, on every platform. Your audio never leaves it. | In the cloud |
| AI cleanup happens | On your device, with no provider at all. Or, if you want more, Deixis's cloud, your own Ollama, or your own key. Your choice, in one setting. | In the cloud |
| Leaves your machine | Text only, and only once you switch a cloud feature on. Never audio, never screenshots, never window titles. | Audio, text |
| Account needed | None, ever, for anything that runs on your device. The cloud extras have a seven-day trial you start with an email code. No card. | Required |
| Price | Free forever for everything that runs on your Mac. Pro is $49 a year for the cloud extras with nothing to set up; on a Mac, that is cloud cleanup. | Free tier: 1,000 words on the Starter plan, no card; its Mac and Windows pages call that about seven minutes of talking; $10 a month; $96 a year |
| Your transcripts live | In plain files, in one folder you own and can back up. Uninstall Deixis and every note is still readable. | On your device and in the cloud |
| Make it yours | Your own dictionary of the names and jargon you use, in its own window. Custom buttons and webhooks are on Windows today, not yet on the Mac. | A custom dictionary and replacements, Custom Instructions on Pro, a Send it voice command and Realtime Mode on Max, and an API for its Avalon speech model |
Aqua Voice facts from home, aquavoice.com, its privacy policy, windows, faq, terms, download, history, languages, mac, llms and realtime, read on 27 September 2026. “Not documented” means those pages did not say.
Aqua's Mac and Windows pages say it processes audio in the cloud, where its Avalon model runs, and that there is no offline mode; its FAQ says cloud dictation needs a connection and that offline availability varies by platform, app version and mode. Its privacy policy says that with Privacy Mode off, transcript data may be stored on its servers to improve the product, and its own site summary (llms.txt) says off is the default; its home page says that with Privacy Mode on nothing is stored there. The same summary says Realtime mode, on Max, streams audio to a third-party realtime speech provider, and its Realtime page says the live words show in Aqua's toolbar and land in the app only once you finish. Transcripts also live in an on-device History tab, per its history guide. Deep Context, its screen reading, is something you enable, per its FAQ. Its quick start is install and sign in, per the site summary.
What leaves your machine, and what leaves theirs
Deixis publishes every byte it sends, as a table, because there is so little of it. Here is that table beside what Aqua Voice's own pages say.
| What | Deixis | Aqua Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Audio | Never. Recognition happens inside the app on your device; the recording, the model and the transcript stay there. | Your voice, to be turned into text: its Mac page says Aqua processes audio in the cloud, where its Avalon model runs, and that there is no offline mode. Aqua's site summary adds that Realtime mode, on the Max plan, streams audio to a third-party realtime speech provider. Its history guide says recent sessions' audio is also kept on your device and deleted after three days.Aqua's cloud, and in Realtime mode a third-party realtime speech provider · every dictation |
| The dictated text | The sentence you just dictated, your vocabulary, and your previous sentence in that fieldthe endpoint you chose · only with a cloud endpoint set, and by default only when the local rules are not enough | The transcript is produced in the cloud. The privacy policy says that with Privacy Mode off, which Aqua's site summary gives as the default, Aqua may store transcript data on its servers to improve the product; with it on, transcripts are not collected, though session metadata may still be, and the home page says nothing is then stored on its servers.Aqua's servers · every dictation |
| Context around the text | The names of the app and the field the text is going into. Never the window title, never a screenshot.the same endpoint · with that request | Deep Context, its screen reading, is something you enable, per the FAQ; the home page says Aqua understands what is on your screen, from code syntax to everyday text, and Aqua's site summary calls it a client-side engine whose data is never stored. The pages do not say what screen content, if any, is sent with a dictation.not stated · only with Deep Context on |
| Telemetry and analytics | None. No account, no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reports. | Session metadata (timestamps, device type, performance metrics) and technical data (IP address, browser type, operating system). For advertising measurement and app-install attribution, a first-party identifier, and measurement data that may include a hashed version of your email address, sent with the event to the advertising platforms the policy names.Aqua, its attribution provider and the named advertising platforms · not stated |
| Update check | Nothing but the request; the version check happens on your Macapi.deixis-voice.com · every launch, and when you ask in Settings | not documented |
| Model download | Nothing but the requesthuggingface.co · once, when you press Download on first run | not documented |
| Account and sign-in | An email address, only if you choose to start the trial, plus the partner tag from a partner download link and the first partner website that connected to Deixis on this computer, if there are anythe Deixis endpoint · when you start the trial | Name, email address, billing address and payment informationAqua · when you create the account and when you pay |
| Integrations | Nothing: webhooks are on Windows today, not yet on the Mac | not documented |
Before you switch
Before you switch
Who should not switch
If you dictate in a language other than English, stay with Aqua; Deixis's speech models are English models. If your Mac has an Intel processor, or is on macOS 12, Deixis will not run on it. If watching the words appear while you are still talking is what you love about Aqua, Deixis types when you let go of the chord, not before, and that is a real difference in feel that no setting changes. And if you have written Custom Instructions you depend on, Deixis has nothing to put them in.
Making the switch
Five minutes from installed to dictating. Here is what maps to what.
Installing
Aqua's Mac page describes its install as open the file, drag it to Applications and grant microphone and Accessibility access, and Deixis is the same: a disk image, a drag to Applications, and the two permissions macOS asks for the first time you dictate, in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Updates arrive through the app, in Settings → Updates.
The key
Aqua's FAQ says its default activation key on a Mac is Fn. Deixis's chord is Ctrl+Option: hold it,
speak, release. The two do not ask for the same key by default, so you can compare them side by side
before you decide. Double-tap Ctrl+Option instead for free mode, which keeps listening until you
double-tap again, then pastes the whole note at the cursor and saves it.
The first run
Aqua signs you in and starts counting your 1,000 words. Deixis shows one Download button: the speech model, fetched once and kept on your Mac. After it, the two calls a fresh install makes on its own are an update check at launch and, when you open the Settings window, a check for an announcement from us, and neither sends anything but the request.
Your dictionary and replacements
Aqua has a custom dictionary and replacements, and Deixis has both, in its Dictionary window: the names and terms you want recognised, and fixes for the words it keeps mishearing. There is no limit on fixes, and one made once applies every time.
Custom Instructions, and what replaces them
Aqua lets you write rules for how your text comes out. Deixis works from where the text is going instead: with cloud cleanup on, it sends the names of the app and the field with your words, so it already knows a chat reply from an email, and you can ask for a transform out loud, "make this a bullet list", and get one. What it does not have is a rule you write once and keep.
Privacy Mode, and what replaces it
Aqua's Privacy Mode decides whether its servers keep your transcripts. Deixis has no such setting because nothing is sent to be kept. The one choice that matters is whether cleanup uses the network, in Settings → Cleanup. Out of the box it tidies your dictation on the Mac with rules and no provider. For more polish, choose Deixis's cloud, a model on your own machine, or your own key, and choose how often: When it helps, which is the default, Every time, or Never.
Before you ask
Questions people search for
Does Aqua Voice work offline on a Mac?
Its Mac page says Aqua processes audio in the cloud and has no offline mode. Its FAQ is a little softer, saying offline availability varies by platform, app version and mode and that support can tell you what your setup allows, but that cloud dictation needs a connection. Deixis works offline in every mode, because its speech recognition never used the network.
Is Aqua Voice free?
The Starter plan is 1,000 words with no card, about seven minutes of talking. After that, Pro is $10 a month or $8 a month billed yearly, and Max $30 a month or $24 billed yearly; students get 70 per cent off. Deixis is free for everything that runs on your Mac, with no word count and no account. Pro, at $49 a year or $10 a month, is cloud cleanup with nothing to set up.
Does Aqua Voice store my transcripts?
Its privacy policy says that with Privacy Mode off it may store transcript data on its servers to improve the product, and its own site summary says off is the default. Its home page says that with Privacy Mode on nothing is stored there. The audio travels to its cloud to become text either way. Deixis has no server in that path: recognition happens inside the app on your Mac, and the transcript stays there.
Does Aqua Voice work on Intel Macs?
Yes. Its Mac page says one universal download runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs alike. Deixis does not: it needs an Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 13 or later, so on an older Mac, Aqua is the one of the two that will run.
Does Deixis type while I am still talking?
No. Deixis types the finished sentence when you release the chord, cleaned and punctuated. For a
longer passage, double-tap Ctrl+Option for free mode and it keeps listening until you double-tap
again, then pastes the whole note at your cursor.
Does Deixis upload my audio?
Never, under any setting. Speech recognition happens inside the app on your Mac. The only content that can leave it is text, for cloud cleanup, and only once you switch that on. The full list of what leaves, every byte, is one page long and linked at the bottom of this one.
Keep reading
Related pages
How to type by voice in any app on a Mac, with the speech recognised on the Mac itself
How to type by voice in any app on a Mac: hold Ctrl+Option, speak, let go. Speech recognition runs on your Mac, free and with no account.
Here is every byte that leaves your machine, for each tool
Every byte Deixis sends off your machine in one table, and the same table filled in for other dictation tools from their own documentation, dated.
MacWhisper transcribes your files. Deixis types where your cursor is.
MacWhisper is a transcription app first. Deixis is dictation first: hold Ctrl+Option on your Mac and clean text lands at the cursor, free, no account.
Superwhisper or Deixis on your Mac: the models, the price and what leaves
Superwhisper puts its AI modes and every language model on Pro. Deixis tidies your dictation on your Mac for free, and never sends your window title.
Wispr Flow, or dictation your Mac keeps to itself
Wispr Flow transcribes in the cloud and, on a Mac, can send a screenshot with each dictation. Deixis dictates on your Mac itself, free, with no account.
VoiceInk or Deixis, two local dictation apps for your Mac
VoiceInk and Deixis both recognise speech on your Mac. VoiceInk is $25 and needs macOS 14.4; Deixis is free for everything local and runs on macOS 13.
Hold a key. Speak. Keep working.
Deixis is free, needs no account, and runs on your own device. Everything on this page is in the current release.
v1.2.2 · 64‑bit Windows 10/11 · macOS 13 on Apple silicon · 51 MB · nothing else to install · also for Windows
Facts about Aqua Voice checked on 2026-09-27 against aquavoice.com. Deixis facts are from its README for the current release. Something out of date? Tell us.