ParrotFlowWhat Wispr Flow does well
Wispr Flow works on four platforms and lists more than 100 languages. It cleans up your speech with no setup. Auto Cleanup removes filler words and fixes grammar. In English, Styles adjust your tone to the kind of app you are in, such as email or a work chat.
Its developer page says it handles camelCase, snake_case and terms like Supabase, and tags files in Cursor and Windsurf. Pro adds a shared dictionary and snippets. Growth adds SSO. Any plan can sign a BAA for HIPAA.
Where your speech goes
Wispr Flow’s privacy page says transcription “always happens in the cloud”. The audio is deleted once it is transcribed, unless you turn on Dictation cloud storage. Its Android page says Flow needs an internet connection to transcribe.
ParrotFlow transcribes on your Mac. The speech model, Parakeet, runs on the Neural Engine. ParrotFlow uses the network to download each model once and to check GitHub for updates, which you can turn off. Then you can turn Wi-Fi off and keep dictating. The offline guide shows how.
There is no ParrotFlow account or server. Text leaves your Mac only if you set up a remote model, or a script of yours sends it. ParrotFlow --check-config names every model that sends text off the Mac.
Cleanup without an LLM rewrite
On Mac and Windows, Wispr Flow’s Auto Cleanup has three levels. Light is the default. Medium “may reword phrases for clarity and conciseness”.
ParrotFlow does not ask a large language model to rewrite what you said. It makes small edits with rules and small local models. For example, a pause for breath makes the speech model write a full stop in the middle of a sentence:
“you should see a parrot at the top right of your screen”
You should see a parrot. At the top right of your screen.
You should see a parrot at the top right of your screen.
Rules remove filler words and repeated words. Small scripts turn spoken numbers, dates and prices into digits, so “nine fifteen AM” becomes “9:15 AM”. If you want a grammar fix or a new tone, add a prompt step on a model you choose, on your Mac through Ollama or with a remote provider.
Names and jargon
Both apps learn a word when you correct it. On Mac and Windows, Wispr Flow adds it to your dictionary when its auto-learn setting is on. ParrotFlow matches a taught name by sound, then checks the sentence before it writes it. So the ordinary word stays where it belongs.
“upgrade view”
upgrade Vue
“re-render the whole view”
re-render the whole view
Both apps can also read the app you dictate into to spell names. ParrotFlow does it on your Mac, when you press the key, in every app except password managers and System Settings:
“caret anchor”
carrot anchor
CaretAnchor
More in custom vocabulary and screen context.
Your own rules and scripts
Wispr Flow has snippets for text you repeat, Styles per app category, and up to eight custom prompts in Transforms.
ParrotFlow has three kinds of step in config.yaml. A rule is a pattern and its replacement. A script is any program that reads stdin and writes stdout. A prompt asks a model. Rules and scripts need no model.
“PR 478”
#478
“Siobhan”
@siobhan
Any step can carry app: /slack/, so it runs in Slack and nowhere else. ParrotFlow --pipeline runs a pipeline file on a sentence, with no microphone, so you can test a rule first. See programmable dictation.
Other open-source options
- VoiceInk is GPL-3.0 and transcribes on your Mac. The source is free to build, and the built app is sold at tryvoiceink.com. See ParrotFlow vs VoiceInk.
- Handy is MIT-licensed, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and transcribes offline. See ParrotFlow vs Handy.
Also see ParrotFlow vs Mac dictation and ParrotFlow vs Superwhisper.