Privacy Policy

Local Dictation: Voice to Text · last updated 24 October 2026

Local Dictation is made by the developer named on its App Store page ("we" in this policy). This policy covers the app and its keyboard on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

The short version

The app collects nothing. Your voice is turned into text on your device by a speech model built into the app, and your recordings, text and history stay on your device. We never receive them. The app has no accounts, no servers, no analytics and no ads. The only outside service it uses is Apple's App Store, for purchases and the free week. If you back up your device (iCloud Backup, a computer backup or Time Machine), the app's files are part of that backup, kept by Apple in your own iCloud account or on your own computer. We can't see them.

What the app uses, and why

• Microphone: asked the first time you record. The app records only during a dictation, and the system shows its microphone indicator the whole time. When you dictate into another app, recording keeps going after you switch back to that app, until you tap Finish or Cancel, after three minutes, or when a call comes in.
• Speech recognition: the Whisper Small speech model and a voice detector are built into the app and run on your device. Nothing is downloaded or sent anywhere to transcribe.
• Apple Intelligence (optional, off by default): if you turn on Enhance with Apple Intelligence, your finished text is cleaned up by Apple's on-device model, on your device. It needs Apple Intelligence turned on and a device and language it supports. If it's unavailable, takes too long or the text is very long, your original text is kept. History keeps the original transcription next to the cleaned-up text.
• Notifications: asked once, when your free week starts, so the app can remind you 2 days before it ends. The reminder is scheduled on your device and cancelled if you buy Local Dictation Pro. The Dictate screen shows the same reminder either way.
• Clipboard: the app puts text on the clipboard only when you tap Copy. The keyboard reads the clipboard only when you tap Add copied. If Handoff is on, Apple's Universal Clipboard can make copied text available on your other Apple devices.
• Country: the country you pick in the introduction only chooses your dictation language. The country isn't saved; the language is.
• Device model: checked on the device to warn you if it may be too slow for the speech model. It isn't saved or sent.
• Siri and Shortcuts: the Start Dictation shortcut only opens the app and starts recording. What you then say is handled by Local Dictation on your device; the phrase you say to Siri is handled by Apple.

The keyboard and Allow Full Access

The Local Dictation keyboard types without Full Access. To capitalise sentences and add a period after a double space, it reads the text just before the cursor, on your device. Its Dictate key needs Full Access: without it, the keyboard shows how to turn Full Access on. It never saves or sends what you type.

If you turn on Allow Full Access, the keyboard also:

• shares a storage area on your device with the Local Dictation app, to show your words while you speak (it reads the text around the cursor to place them), insert the result, switch the dictation language, and show your transcript and clipboard history;
• suggests words above the keys, from the text just before the cursor, on your device;
• reads the clipboard when you tap Add copied;
• plays key haptics, if Key haptics is on in Local Dictation's Settings.

iOS warns that a keyboard with Full Access could send what you type over the internet. The Local Dictation keyboard has no internet code and never connects to the internet.

What is kept on your device

• The recording: saved as one audio file while you speak. It's deleted as soon as it's transcribed, when no speech is found, or when you cancel. If transcription fails or iOS stops it, the file stays so you can tap Retry saved recording. It's deleted when the retry works or when you tap Delete saved recording, and replaced by your next recording.
• History: your latest 50 dictations, with date, time and language, plus the original transcription when it was cleaned up. History is on by default. It's kept in the app and, so the keyboard can offer it, in the storage the app shares with the keyboard.
• Latest result: your most recent dictation waits in the shared storage, so the keyboard can insert it, until your next dictation, until you tap Clear in History, or until the app next starts. This happens even when history is off.
• Clipboard history: up to 40 texts: what you copy in Local Dictation and text you add with Add copied in the keyboard. When Save dictation history is off, only what you add with Add copied is kept.
• Settings: dictation language, Apple Intelligence and Slovenian options, history on or off, key haptics and double-space period, whether you've seen the introduction, and whether Local Dictation Pro is active, and when a free week ends.

What we don't do

• No accounts, no sign-in.
• No analytics, no ads, no tracking. The only outside code is open-source speech software (FluidAudio with the NVIDIA Parakeet Redux model, and WhisperKit with the Whisper and Silero models), and it runs inside the app without sending anything.
• No servers: the app makes no internet requests of its own, and dictation works in airplane mode. Only the App Store (purchases, prices) needs a connection, and the Privacy and Terms of Use links open in your browser.
• We never see your recordings, text, history or clipboard.

Sharing

When you tap Share on a transcript, the text goes only where you send it, through Apple's share sheet. After that, the app or person you sent it to decides what happens to it, under their own privacy policy.

Free week and purchases

Local Dictation Pro (monthly with a free first week, or Lifetime) is sold through the App Store, so buying and restoring need an internet connection. We never see your name, payment details or Apple Account. The app only asks the App Store, on your device, whether you have Pro and when a free week ends. Manage or cancel a subscription in Settings › your name › Subscriptions (on a Mac: App Store › your name › Account Settings).

Other companies

The only other company involved is Apple: the App Store for purchases and the free week, plus the system features the app uses (microphone, Apple Intelligence, notifications, the clipboard, the share sheet, Siri and Shortcuts). Apple's handling is covered by Apple's Privacy Policy. No other company receives anything from the app.

If you turned on Share With App Developers (Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements), Apple may give us anonymous crash reports and usage statistics. Apple also gives us anonymous download and sales totals. None of this identifies you.

How long things are kept, and deleting them

• A recording is kept only after a transcription fails or is stopped, and only the latest one. Delete it with Delete saved recording on the Dictate screen or Delete saved audio in Settings › Privacy.
• History stays until you delete it: swipe a dictation and tap Delete, or tap Clear in History to delete them all. Turning off Settings › Privacy › Save dictation history stops new saves; it doesn't delete what's already there.
• Clipboard history keeps the 40 newest texts and drops older ones. Clear it, together with your saved dictations, in the History tab: Clear › Delete all.
• Deleting Local Dictation removes everything it kept on your device, including the keyboard's storage. Your purchases and free week stay with your Apple Account, so reinstalling doesn't give a new free week. Copies inside a backup stay until that backup is replaced or deleted.
• Apart from emails you send us, we hold no data about you. To have an email deleted, just ask.

Changing your mind

Turn microphone access off or on any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone (on a Mac: System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone), notifications in Settings › Notifications › Local Dictation (on a Mac: System Settings › Notifications), and Full Access in Settings › Apps › Local Dictation › Keyboards. Without the microphone the app can't dictate; without notifications the free-week reminder appears only in the app; without Full Access the keyboard still types, but Dictate can't start. Apple Intelligence clean-up can be turned off in the app at any time.

Children

The app collects no data from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top.

If you email us

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write or attach. We use it only to answer you, never share it, and delete it once your question is settled, or sooner if you ask.

Contact

Questions: localdictation.help@icloud.com.