Halopen is a native macOS hold-to-talk dictation app. Hold a key, speak, release, and the finished text lands in whatever field your cursor is in: mail, chat, docs, a code editor, a terminal.

Its default is Verbatim: it writes what you actually said, and AI cleanup is optional. In a same-audio test of twelve constructions that cleanup models tend to "correct", Halopen kept 10 as spoken (measured 2026-09-20, Halopen 1.8.29). If you want polish, Polish and Editorial modes are one setting away, and you can see what they changed.

It transcribes in the cloud or entirely on your Mac (Apple Silicon), keeps a local audit log of every cloud call, spells your names from a personal dictionary, and learns a name after you correct it once.

Mac only, macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. 14-day trial with no card, then $19/month, $179/year, or $499 once for Lifetime.