Voice phrases: a row you fire by saying its words
InputConfig is completely free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.
A voice phrase is a row you fire by saying its words: "jump", "next page", "open inventory". The Mac listens only while a preset with voice rows runs or the Voice Phrases sheet is open, recognizes speech on this Mac when the language allows it, and keeps nothing. For someone with few buttons or none, every phrase is a command that costs only a word. It is its own input, Voice phrase in a row's input menu.
Add a voice phrase
- You: Add a row with the input type Voice Phrase, then choose Edit voice phrases in its menu. Allow the Microphone and Speech Recognition when asked, click Add, and type the words.
- InputConfig: Saves the phrase with the preset and listens while the preset runs. Each time the phrase is heard the row fires once, like a quick press.
- Check: The sheet shows what the Mac hears as you speak, and the phrase's dot lights when it is heard.
Words are matched as whole words, ignoring case and accents. Two or three words are heard more surely than one, and words that sound unlike each other are told apart better than ones that rhyme. The language menu picks the recognizer's language; the Mac's own is the default, and the sheet says whether that language is recognized on this Mac or through Apple's servers.
Allow the Microphone and Speech Recognition
Both are asked for the first time a voice phrase is used, and Settings, General has a section for them with links to the system settings. The microphone is open only while a preset with voice rows runs or the sheet is open; a preset whose phrases cannot be heard says so once in the activity log and reads them as not heard. Presets without voice rows never open the microphone.
Know how voice phrases behave
- A quick press. A phrase fires once per time it is said. Set the row to Toggles on and off in its Options for something that stays on; a phrase is never held, so it has no hold action.
- On this Mac when possible. Languages with on-device recognition never leave the Mac; for the others Apple's servers do the recognition, as Dictation does.
- Listening restarts on its own. macOS ends a recognition after about a minute of audio; InputConfig starts a new one at once, and a word said exactly then may be missed.
- Spoken feedback can echo. What a row says through the Mac's speakers can reach the microphone. While InputConfig speaks, a phrase inside its own words is not pressed, and the activity log says so; a headset keeps the rest of its speech out of the microphone too.
- Voice Control and Dictation. The phrases work beside macOS Voice Control; a word that is also a Voice Control command does both.
Questions
Does it need the internet?
Not for languages recognized on this Mac. The sheet says which applies to the language you chose.
Can it hold a key while I speak?
A phrase is a press. Set the row to Toggles on and off so one saying holds the key and the next lets go, or use two phrases, one to start and one to stop.
Is my voice recorded?
No. Audio goes to the recognizer and is dropped; nothing is written to disk.
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