A minimal dark dictation interface with a floating pill button

02 / 06 — Desktop Application

Privacy-first voice-to-text dictation, transcribed locally.

Client
Personal project
Year
2026
Role
Fork maintainer & engineer
Stack
Electron · TypeScript · whisper.cpp · Cross-platform

Overview

Void is a dictation tool: hold a key, speak, and text appears at your cursor. Transcription happens locally through whisper.cpp, so audio never leaves the machine unless you deliberately send it somewhere.

Source
Void dictation pill floating over a dark desktop
Fig. 1The floating pill. Hold, speak, done.

01 — The challenge

Cloud dictation means your voice is processed on someone else's hardware. For anything sensitive that is a non-starter, and per-minute pricing makes heavy use expensive. The alternative — running speech recognition locally — used to mean unacceptable latency.

02 — The solution

whisper.cpp made local transcription practical, and Void wraps it in a desktop app that feels instant. Platform-specific low-level paste helpers handle the fact that Linux, Windows and macOS each fight you differently. AI cleanup features are optional and bring-your-own-key, so the core loop needs no network at all.

0

Audio leaves the machine

100%

Local transcription

3

Platforms supported

Void settings panel showing whisper model selection
Fig. 2Settings — model selection and hotkey config.

Credits

  • Fork & extensionsRahul Kumar Singh
  • Original projectOpenWhispr

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