What is Walkie?
Walkie is a voice tool that runs alongside every other app on your computer. Hold one key, speak, and your words appear as polished text wherever your cursor is — in Slack, Gmail, VS Code, Notion, or a terminal. It also records and transcribes meetings, and reads any text aloud in a natural voice. It is not a window you dictate into and copy out of.
The three things Walkie does
Walkie is one app with three jobs. Most people install it for the first and discover the other two later.
| Feature | What it does | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| Dictation | Hold a key, speak, and polished text lands wherever your cursor is | macOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone |
| Read Aloud | Highlight text anywhere and hear it read in a natural voice | macOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone |
| Meetings | Records and transcribes calls with speaker labels, notes, and action items | macOS |
Dictation types into other apps, not into Walkie
This is the part that surprises people. Walkie does not give you a text box to dictate into. It types into whatever app already has your cursor, the same way your keyboard does. Put your cursor in a Slack message, hold your shortcut, speak, and the message is written.
Because of that, Walkie needs permission to send keystrokes to other applications. On macOS that is the Accessibility permission, and it is the single most common reason a new install appears to do nothing. See Installing Walkie.
Cloud Mode and On-Device Mode
Every Walkie install can transcribe two different ways, and you switch between them whenever you like. This is a privacy choice, not a pricing tier — both modes exist on the free plan and on every paid plan.
- On-Device Mode runs the speech model on your own machine. Audio never leaves the computer, it works with no internet, and dictation in it is unlimited and free forever.
- Cloud Mode sends the audio to be transcribed and polished in the cloud. It is faster, punctuates better, strips filler words, and formats text to suit the app you are dictating into.
Cloud Mode vs On-Device Mode covers how to choose.
What you get without paying
Walkie's free plan is not a time-limited trial. On-Device Mode dictation has no word cap and no expiry.
- Unlimited On-Device Mode dictation, forever, with no account required
- 2,000 Cloud Mode words a week
- 10 minutes of Read Aloud a month
- A one-time trial of 3 recorded meetings
Plans and limits has the full table.
Who makes Walkie
Walkie is built by Adam Perlis, a solo bootstrapped founder. There is no support queue behind a large team — questions sent from the app reach the person who wrote the code.
Frequently asked questions about what is Walkie?
Do I need an account to use Walkie?
No. On-Device Mode dictation works with no account at all. You need an account for Cloud Mode, Read Aloud, and Meetings, because those run against servers that have to know whose usage they are counting.
Does Walkie work offline?
On-Device Mode does, completely, once the speech model has been downloaded. Cloud Mode and Read Aloud need an internet connection.
Is Walkie a replacement for Apple Dictation?
It covers the same job and adds cleanup, a custom dictionary, and per-app formatting. Unlike Apple Dictation it also runs on Windows and Linux, and it does not stop listening after a short pause.