Getting started

Welcome to Speakeys

Five minutes from download to your first dictated sentence. You can practise right on this page.

1. 1

   Install

   Open Speakeys.dmg and drag Speakeys onto the Applications folder.

   
2. 2

   Open it the first time

   Open Speakeys from Applications. A waveform icon appears in the menu bar at the top of the screen — that’s Speakeys. It has no window and no Dock icon.

   macOS says Speakeys can’t be opened? Click Done, then open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down to Security and click Open Anyway next to Speakeys. Confirm with your password or Touch ID. You only do this once.

3. 3

   Add your Groq key

   Speakeys uses your own key for Groq, the fast speech and AI service. It’s free to start.

   1. Sign up at console.groq.com.
   2. Open API Keys → Create API Key and copy it (it starts with gsk_).
   3. Paste it into the window Speakeys shows on first launch, or later via Groq API key… in the menu.

   Tip: in the Groq console, turn on Settings → Data Controls → Zero Data Retention so Groq keeps no logs of your requests.

4. 4

   Allow microphone and Accessibility

   Click Allow when macOS asks for the microphone. Then choose Grant permissions… in the Speakeys menu and switch Speakeys on under Accessibility — it lets Speakeys notice the keys you hold and paste text for you.

5. 5

   Try dictation

   Click into the box below, hold right ⌘, say a sentence and let go. Try: “Hi Marta, thanks for the deck — can we talk tomorrow morning?”

   Dictate here
6. 6

   Try editing with AI

   Select all the text in the box (⌘ A), hold left ⌥ and say: “Make it shorter and more polite.” Let go — the text is rewritten in place.

   Edit this text hey, so about the invoice, its been like two weeks and we still didnt get the money, can u pls check this and pay by friday because otherwise we have to stop the account
7. 7

   Make it yours

   • Edit dictionary… — teach Speakeys names and jargon, and fix words it keeps getting wrong. How it works
   • Language — Polish, English or automatic.
   • Microphone — keep the built-in mic if you use Bluetooth headphones.
   • Launch at login — so Speakeys is always ready.