MacWhisper, native macOS app for Whisper

[jordibruin]

First of all, a massive thanks to @ggerganov for making all this! Most of the low level stuff is voodoo to me, but I was able to get a native macOS app up and running thanks to all your hard work!

MacWhisper lets you run Whisper locally on your Mac without having to install anything else.

Features

• Easily record and transcribe audio files
• Just drag and drop audio files to get a transcription
• Get accurate text transcriptions in seconds (up to 15x realtime)
• Search the entire transcript and highlight words
• Supports multiple languages (fastest model is English only)
• Copy the entire transcript or individual sections
• Reader Mode

MacWhisper is very basic right now, so please let me know if you run into anything. You can download it for free here:
http://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper

[jordibruin]

Added a bunch more features such as editing and deleting segments, as well as language selection. Love this framework, thanks again!

[roysimulator]

I've been using the free version of the MacWhisper app for about a month, and I must say, I'm a huge fan of the "Speaker Paragraph" export function. It's been incredibly helpful in helping me grasp the overall message conveyed by the speakers. I've been contemplating getting the full license, especially because I have a hefty library of over 500 GB of videos that need transcribing.

However, there's one aspect that's been bothering me. When it comes to bulk transcribing videos, I can't seem to find the "Speaker Paragraph" export option anywhere. This restriction has left me wondering why such a limitation exists. Wouldn't it make sense to unlock this export option for paying users who've already invested in the app?

Now, I find myself in a dilemma. I can either manually transcribe videos one by one, ensuring I get the "Speaker Paragraph" export, or I can opt for the PRO license to bulk transcribe my videos, but they'll come out as fragmented sentences.

For me, the absence of the "Speaker Paragraph" export option for bulk-transcribed videos is a significant drawback, preventing me from making the purchase I've been considering for over two weeks now. I kindly request adding the "Speaker Paragraph" export option for both single video transcriptions and bulk transcriptions. Your consideration would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Duseylicious]

I've already purchased and love it, but I'd 2nd this request. 👍

[mrienstra]

@jordibruin, ping, just in case you missed this thread.

[kjkunkle]

@jordibruin Can you add a functionality to hide the MacWhisper dock icon ?

Would be nice since I always have it open for the menubar shortcut, but don't like the app cluttering up my CMD+Tab area !

[imthemastah]

I admit I'm still confused by this. I have the pro version and I all see that the useful option is unavailable?

[pbassham]

Love it! Working well.

Here are a few thoughts from some initial use:

1. Would be good to have a way to stop a transcription in progress. Like if you chose a large file and it is going to take too long. I just dropped a 2nd file on top during it working and it crashed it, so I guess that works, lol.
2. Would be awesome to see a list of transcription history in the sidebar, for instance.
3. Some view preferences would be nice.
   • show/hide timestamps (maybe just show them on the right to save space, or just on hover)
   • reader view by default? (the default view is quite inefficient on space)
   • An editable reader mode seems more useful than the very short segments in the default view right now. That would allow you to group it into paragraphs, separate by person, etc, more easily.
4. Showing the local audio file that is transcribed with a player would be awesome. And clicking on a sentence could jump to that timestamp in the audio file.

Definitely a good start!

Any way to see when updates are released?

[matsumurae]

This is a really good app! I remember last time I tried something similar and the AI with Japanese was a bit shitty… I need to review the extracted text but it looks really good (at least what I've saw on the first mins).

I have two ideas that could be good to have:

1. Would be possible to differentiate between speakers? Well, if not, it's still possible to add it by hand but that's hard work too.
2. I would like to have the option to re-open files. This could be with a proprietary file format or using the exported ones (like .csv or .srt).

About the first point
This could be really useful to transcribe podcasts with multiple speakers.

For the 2nd point
I'm not sure if it's possible to re-open a file without a proprietary format so it stores both audio + text. I'm thinking on something like oTranscribe does with it's own files so you can review as many times as you want.

Also, I would like to ask why MacWhisper isn't on Github or Gitlab so all of us can collaborate too.

[taivlam]

For your first point, Discussion #450 involves what's called "diarization" in whisper.cpp.

Issue #489 (for 3/more speakers) is closed, though really issue #64 is the issue to keep tabs on with respect to diarization progress.

[kai-shimada]

For your second point, we have added support for saving and reopening from SRT files in WhisperScript Pro. We were actually motivated to implement this feature by your suggestion :)

You can see other features of WhisperScript Pro here: https://getwavery.gumroad.com/l/whisperscript

[matsumurae]

For your second point, we have added support for saving and reopening from SRT files in WhisperScript. We were actually motivated to implement this feature by your suggestion :)

Wow, happy to see it was a useful feature.

You can try WhisperScript right here: https://getwavery.gumroad.com/l/whisperscript

I couldn't resist to test it. I've sent to the mail all the feedback that I've found :)

[stephando]

Love it! And works really well.
However the export transcript button does not work on my machine (MacOS Monterey on MacBook Pro with M1 Max) - any thoughts?

[LtPierrot]

Same issue... cannot export

[ReeceKidd]

Same

[SWM89]

Nice job ! Looking further for live transcript…

[dmuiX]

would be nice if i could choose the language

[Sogl]

Nice app. Please add support for *.ogg files (WhatsApp, Telegram voice).

[Jeff9387346]

Fantastic work.

Question: I initially downloaded the non-pro version and chose only the english dataset. After testing I want to try the multi-language dataset, but I see no way in the app or website to go back and get that file. Pointer would be appreciated.

[jmantn]

I purchased MacWhisper Pro and love the application.

I primarily use this for podcasts and hour long recordings. I'd like to request a way to export a transcript and its accompanying audio or video and have it be interactive like click on three paragraphs down and there's where the media will jump to. Or A program that could do that as I'd happily pay for something that like that.

Would also love to see macwhisper come to iOS as well. Gladly pay for this again just to have it on mobile as well.

[Jeff9387346]

Also, once I identify a speaker, it would be fantastic for the AI to then label all instances of that voice appropriately!!

[jmantn]

Also, once I identify a speaker, it would be fantastic for the AI to then label all instances of that voice appropriately!!

That's honestly what I'm hoping for because the alternative would be tedious for longer transcripts.

[canoben]

Batch mode does not work in the Pro version (only reason why I bought it).

[jmantn]

Batch mode does not work in the Pro version (only reason why I bought it).

I'm using hour long .mp3's and I've done up to 5 at a time with the Large model selected and they all worked for me. One nice thing about batch mode that's missing from doing individuals for me is when I do batch mode I can select ahead of time multiple formats for output whereas when I do it individually I have to manually export with each format I want one at a time.

But at least for me and my use case batch mode is working. Might be helpful to the dev to know which macOS version you're running and what file types your trying to convert?

[canoben]

I'm using the latest versions of everything (MacWhisper 2.14 and macOS 13.3.1) and tried with both mp3 and wav files. I've tried on both Intel and Apple Silicon machines, but the batch always stops after the first file (and nothing is written to the disk). Changing language models or output options does not change this. Starting a batch with 5 files or less doesn't help, either.
But I've found a solution for me: I compiled Whisper.cpp myself and use it with the command line. Works perfectly, although strangely much slower than MacWhisper. Maybe I missed some optimisation flags for Apple Silicon. MacWhisper runs much faster on AS compared to the Intel versions.

[dchad3]

I used Mac Whisper Pro Medium to transcribe an interview - stereo file. I wish I could get MW to identify each track with a name. It's too much work to do that manually. I see I can add people but I didn't figure out how that worked. Would be nice if there were YouTube videos showing what it can do and how to do it. Maybe there are but I haven't found them yet.

[dchad3]

Turns out that either I did it wrong or that it doesn't do stereo files. It only transcribed the first track. I made it mono and transcribed it that way and now have to separate the host and guest comments. I don't see how to have host and guest each with separate paragraphs and identified as in Host: blah bla, Guest: blah blah - except manually. Looking forward to Mac Whisper being able to do that.

[dchad3]

I got Mac Whisper for my Macbook Air M1 Ventura and got the pro. It then gave me size options so I chose medium. Can I have Pro large? There was no option to do that with the Pro. I do podcasts with a different person each time and am in no hurry so the best I can get is what I want.

[j-f1]

You should be able to go to the dropdown in the top right corner labelled “Medium” and then choose “Manage Models…” to download additional models.

[dchad3]

Thanks. I did look into that and see for English only, Pro medium seems to be the best. Large has multiple languages.

[wanderingstan]

Just found a little bug: Looks like it only listens to the left channel of a stereo file.

I kept getting only "[BLANK_AUDIO]" for an mp3 file that clearly had voices in it. Mystery was solved when I opened it in audacity and saw that the speaking was all in the right channel.

[iandundas]

Thanks for the feedback - this is fixed in 5.7, which will be available soon, likely within the next week.

[klh]

you should add a settings section to tweak num of cpus / threads weights etc.
should be easy to add.

[veldman1]

@jordibruin Wondering if there is a way to implement a play/pause on space bar press if there is no text currently selected?

[iloveitaly]

What about a dictation mode, similar to https://github.com/foges/whisper-dictation? Hotkey + speak + text is typed on your computer?

[roysimulator]

I've been using the free version of the MacWhisper app for about a month, and I must say, I'm a huge fan of the "Speaker Paragraph" export function. It's been incredibly helpful in helping me grasp the overall message conveyed by the speakers. I've been contemplating getting the full license, especially because I have a hefty library of over 500 GB of videos that need transcribing.

However, there's one aspect that's been bothering me. When it comes to bulk transcribing videos, I can't seem to find the "Speaker Paragraph" export option anywhere. This restriction has left me wondering why such a limitation exists. Wouldn't it make sense to unlock this export option for paying users who've already invested in the app?

Now, I find myself in a dilemma. I can either manually transcribe videos one by one, ensuring I get the "Speaker Paragraph" export, or I can opt for the PRO license to bulk transcribe my videos, but they'll come out as fragmented sentences.

For me, the absence of the "Speaker Paragraph" export option for bulk-transcribed videos is a significant drawback, preventing me from making the purchase I've been considering for over two weeks now. I kindly request adding the "Speaker Paragraph" export option for both single video transcriptions and bulk transcriptions. Your consideration would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[readtedium]

Hey there, weird problem I’ve spotted: I use Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback to capture audio, but when I use audio captured from this tool, MacWhisper is unable to transcribe the data—even if it’s grabbed from another source, like QuickTime Player, and added manually. I tried grabbing through other software audio tools, like Krisp, and am not running into this issue. It’s only a problem with Loopback, and the audio sounds fine.

I have also reached out to Rogue Amoeba’s support about this problem, full disclosure.

[iandundas]

Hi @readtedium, I also work on MacWhisper, would you mind sharing a file recorded in this way so that I could take a look? Thanks 🙌
(I installed Loopback but it requires disabling SIP to run 😬)

[readtedium]

Hi @iandundas, thanks for reching out! (As for your aside: Only for the installation; you can turn it off afterwards. Blame Apple for that one—they really locked things down unnecessarily.)

Here’s an audio file run through Loopback: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R6-GQlpJQRu2JlFDcwdxp-3kTJ_Jih2D/view?usp=sharing

And an audio file run through a software Krisp microphone: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Luuns_uvA74EFEqf50buQSpgrzrh0dJL/view?usp=sharing

We believe the problem with the first clip is that the audio uses four channels, which I did so I could output the audio to the speaker without having my own voice echo back to me. The second audio clip works fine.

[iandundas]

many thanks, I'll check it out!

[iandundas]

Hey - It's fixed in an upcoming release! :)

[readtedium]

Awesome! Thanks for taking care of this!

[ninjacarlo]

OpenAI just unveiled Whisper 3 which is faster, lighter and more accurate especially for other languages! Hope you integrate it in to macwhisper :)

[cgallerhh]

Hi, I have the MacWhisper Pro and work on a MavcBook Air (M1) with Airpods Pro.
When I record calls, only my part is recorded, but not what my conversation partner says.
The medium model is activated and I have never managed to record both my voice and that of my partner via the Airpods.

1. "New recording" -> only my voice via Airpods
2. "Record App Audio" -> listbox "airpods", Record System Audio -> only the other person's voice.

What do I have to do to record both my voice and that of my conversation partner via AirPods Pro?

[iandundas]

Hi @cgallerhh, one of the devs of MacWhisper here - I'm guessing this was FaceTime? As far as I know it's not possible to record a FaceTime call due to privacy constraints in Apple's API.

[detchells]

How to handle mixed-language audio? (Can it?)
I have the paid version of MacWhisper and a valid DeepL key, but when I process meeting audio with both English and Japanese spoken, only the English part is transcribed, it just says [Japanese Spoken] for the Japanese parts. When I select "Translate to ... English", it says the data can't be read because it's missing. Am I making some stupid mistake somewhere?

AFAIK Whisper itself can handle mixed conversations and I"m using the Large model that includes all the languages, is there a limit of some kind with how MacWhisper is set up, or am I perhaps just missing something in the interface?

[iandundas]

Hi @detchells, one of the devs of MacWhisper here, are you able to share such an audio file with me (even just an extract) so that I can do some experimentation? Thanks

[detchells]

Wow, thanks for the super-fast reply, and absolutely, I've uploaded an MP3 file with a representative extract of the conversation.

The linked MP3 has a bit over 4 minutes of conversatoin, saved at 170-210 Kbps, forced to mono. There are 3 speakers, myself (loud English), a Japanese interviewee (medium-volume Japanese) and the interpreter (soft-spoken, both English and Japanese).

For me, if I select auto-detect, it will grab whatever language appears first in the stream and then just show the others as [speaking Japanese] in English text or the Kanji equivalent in the other direction for Japanese text. If I manually select English or Japanese, it does the same.

Even if I have it transcribe in Japanese, so I know there's Japanese text there, selecting Translate says the data is missing.

Thanks so much for looking into this for me!

(If it could really handle mixed dialogue, this would be incredibly useful to me. I'm also interested to see how it does with broken Jinglish, although I'm not expecting much on that front :-/ - That would be Truly helpful though...)

Hmm, it won't let me attach the file here, so here's a Dropbox link that should give you access, thanks again:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iybdicxdkb84647cyf7gn/Canon_clip_for_MacWhisperDevs.mp3?rlkey=xktmfi0z91fk0bx7tixbbjfo4&dl=0

[cgallerhh]

Hi Ian, no, it wasn’t Facetime, it was MS Teams. *Von: *Ian Dundas ***@***.***> *Datum: *Freitag, 8. Dezember 2023 um 09:26 *An: *ggerganov/whisper.cpp ***@***.***> *Cc: *cgallerhh ***@***.***>, Mention < ***@***.***> *Betreff: *Re: [ggerganov/whisper.cpp] MacWhisper, native macOS app for Whisper (Discussion #420) Hi @cgallerhh <https://github.com/cgallerhh>, one of the devs of MacWhisper here - I'm guessing this was FaceTime? As far as I know it's not possible to record a FaceTime call due to privacy constraints in Apple's API. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#420 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A573WDR2A3AWGYFONFVAVKTYILFMJAVCNFSM6AAAAAAT6AEGNOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TOOJXGQ2DK> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[cgallerhh]

Hi Ian, please find attached [image: Bildschirmfoto 2023-12-08 um 11.11.20.png] an audio file with my voice. It was recording “system audio” -> Airpods and I can only listen to my own voice. Viele liebe Grüße, Christian Galler Nymphenweg 8 21077 Hamburg Web www.christian-galler.de Mobil 0176 63107173 7. Dec at 09_59_55 Microphone.whisper <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q48QEesAZA2Wg-ivldwvTgn1tO4NP3u2/view?usp=drive_web>

…

On Fri, 8 Dec 2023 at 09:25, Ian Dundas ***@***.***> wrote: Hi @detchells <https://github.com/detchells>, one of the devs of MacWhisper here, are you able to share such an audio file with me (even just an extract) so that I can do some experimentation? Thanks — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#420 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A573WDUU63DF3ZNXXFYWAYTYILFHNAVCNFSM6AAAAAAT6AEGNOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TOOJXGQZTK> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[cgallerhh]

Hi my friend, I‘m not that japanese guy - I am the Airpods guy with only one speaker in a conversation. Seems you‘ve written the wrong user. Gesendet von Outlook für iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

…

________________________________ Von: Dave Etchells ***@***.***> Gesendet: Friday, December 8, 2023 8:52:03 PM An: ggerganov/whisper.cpp ***@***.***> Cc: cgallerhh ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Betreff: Re: [ggerganov/whisper.cpp] MacWhisper, native macOS app for Whisper (Discussion #420) Wow, thanks for the super-fast reply, and absolutely, I've uploaded an MP3 file with a representative extract of the conversation. The linked MP3 has a bit over 4 minutes of conversatoin, saved at 170-210 Kbps, forced to mono. There are 3 speakers, myself (loud English), a Japanese interviewee (medium-volume Japanese) and the interpreter (soft-spoken, both English and Japanese). For me, if I select auto-detect, it will grab whatever language appears first in the stream and then just show the others as [speaking Japanese] in English text or the Kanji equivalent in the other direction for Japanese text. If I manually select English or Japanese, it does the same. Even if I have it transcribe in Japanese, so I know there's Japanese text there, selecting Translate says the data is missing. Thanks so much for looking into this for me! (If it could really handle mixed dialogue, this would be incredibly useful to me. I'm also interested to see how it does with broken Jinglish, although I'm not expecting much on that front :-/ - That would be Truly helpful though...) Hmm, it won't let me attach the file here, so here's a Dropbox link that should give you access, thanks again: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iybdicxdkb84647cyf7gn/Canon_clip_for_MacWhisperDevs.mp3?rlkey=xktmfi0z91fk0bx7tixbbjfo4&dl=0 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#420 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A573WDSA4PR4CP2OSI2V5STYINVWHAVCNFSM6AAAAAAT6AEGNOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TQMBTGA4DM>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Nnnay07]

Found an issue with transcription of speeches when interrupted by long pauses where music is played. Using Spanish language and small model on mp3 file. In that case the onlie training lasted 4h and had several breaks for coffee and lunch where music would be played. Transcription goes well for the fisrt part, then detects the music (and informs about [MUSIC], but never detects that the spoken speech starts again. It transcribes [MUSIC] until the end of the file. Result is 2h of correct transcription followed by 2h of [MUSIC], while it should have been 2h of transcription + 15min of [MUSIC] + 1h45 of transcription.
Systematic problem faced on several files.

[evenkeelhuang]

I encountered a similar situation in my experience. When the speaker in the recording has a long period of silence, the transcription that follows often becomes inaccurate. This seems to be a common issue when dealing with long pauses in speech.

[Shmoopy2024]

Macwhisper version 6.11 - no longer lets me edit the lines in the transcript to assign speakers! I'm not a comp sci guy, I am just a simple user. If anyone can provide help with this, or can suggest something like a new procedure - please - let me know, ok?

Without the ability to assign speakers - it's essentially lost 50% of its utility. yikes!

[Shmoopy2024]

never mind - I just had a senior's moment . It's fine, the app is ok

[gnewtonn]

Anyone knows something similar for Windows?

[mrienstra]

Some suggestions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/163hzhe/recommended_whisper_ai_with_gui_and_gpu_support/

[Sing303]

Yeah, it's very similar to this https://easywhisper.io/

[thewh1teagle]

Vibe works on macOS / Linux / Windows
https://github.com/thewh1teagle/vibe

[auroraflux]

This app is absolutely phenomenal, I've bought it 3 times now for myself and two friends.

Is there any chance there's an equivalent for Android? I'm looking for something that allows at the very least a long, uninterrupted mic recording where I can just put the phone down and let it pick everything up and transcribe it later.

I realize I could just do an audio recording and move the file and transcribe it via the MacWhisperer app later, but if I could do it all on-device that would be incredible.

Thanks!

[ef-is]

The pricing concept makes no sense to me.
You just built a frontend for the development work of others and yet you demand that people buy the pro version for a large model - which does not have any dependencies in your app.
You have done no work for the large whisper model - why should someone pay for pro to use it?