Pressay

Press → say. Private, local-first voice dictation for Windows and macOS.

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English · Русский · Troubleshooting · Testing status · Contributing

Pressay records from the selected microphone, recognizes Russian and English locally with faster-whisper, and inserts the final text only if the same editable control still owns focus. Audio and transcripts are not uploaded or written to disk. On Windows, hotkeys (hold-to-talk, toggle, insert, copy) are configurable in Pressay's settings window. The current macOS beta uses fixed shortcuts; the guides below list them and the known keyboard-layout conflicts.

An opt-in voice command can switch subsequent RU/EN dictation to local English translation. Translation uses a translation-capable model and may download that model the first time it is selected; the normal language selector remains a recognition hint and does not enable translation.

The macOS beta uses CPU inference. CTranslate2 supports Intel and Apple Silicon macOS wheels, but its faster-whisper backend does not use Metal/MPS. A real Mac is still required for the final microphone, Accessibility, Input Monitoring, menu-bar and application-insertion acceptance checklist.

On Windows, installation publishes a versioned app payload under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pressay\app\<version> and points every managed shortcut at the stable %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pressay\Pressay.ps1 launcher. The installed app no longer depends on the cloned repository. Each payload contains a validated reference to a versioned runtime under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pressay\runtime\<runtime-version>. When the dependency contract is unchanged, an upgrade reuses the active runtime instead of rebuilding its multi-gigabyte environment; changed dependencies get a new immutable-by-policy runtime. Configuration, logs, and the model cache remain shared. Upgrades retain the active and previous app payloads plus every runtime they reference, then remove only older verified payloads and unreferenced runtimes. A stable Uninstall-Pressay.ps1 is installed beside the launcher.

The macOS developer beta still runs from its repository checkout; keep that checkout in place.

On Windows, the system-default microphone is opened through its WASAPI endpoint when available, with one safe fallback to PortAudio's native default. The settings picker groups MME, DirectSound, WASAPI, and WDM-KS views of the same physical microphone and recommends the WASAPI variant instead of presenting every driver entry as a different device.

git clone https://github.com/artemiyDev/Pressay.git
cd Pressay
.\scripts\install.ps1 -DesktopShortcut -EnableAutostart

Fully exit a running Pressay from its tray menu before installing or upgrading.

git clone https://github.com/artemiyDev/Pressay.git
cd Pressay
bash scripts/install-macos.sh

On macOS, grant Pressay access under System Settings → Privacy & Security: Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring. Restart Pressay after changing Accessibility or Input Monitoring permissions.

• Local ASR after the model has been downloaded.
• Network access is expected when a selected recognition or translation model is not yet present in the local model cache.
• RU/EN only; automatic language selection never returns a third language.
• Choosing Russian or English skips language detection; it does not translate speech. Dictating in the other language may produce inaccurate text.
• No telemetry and no audio/transcript files.
• Focus fingerprint is rechecked before every insertion batch and Enter.
• Automatic insertion never falls back to overwriting the clipboard.
• On Windows, automatic insertion still uses the clipboard for multiline text and characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (emoji), restoring the previous content afterward; "Insert last" and "Copy" always use it. On macOS, automatic insertion and "Insert last" never touch the pasteboard — only "Copy" does.
• If Windows Clipboard History (Win+V) is on, a fragment delivered this way stays in the history after Pressay restores the clipboard, and syncs to other devices when cloud clipboard sync is on. Turn it off under Settings → System → Clipboard if that matters to you.
• Corrupt configuration disables automatic insertion instead of restoring unsafe defaults.

MIT licensed. See the full English guide, Russian guide, troubleshooting guide, security policy, and changelog.