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Google launched two new speech models for developers: Gemini 3.8 Live handles real-time voice conversations with reasoning and background tool execution, while Gemini 3.5 Transcribe converts speech to text across 85+ languages with a 4.0% error rate.
- Gemini 3.8 Live can execute API calls in the background while streaming audio responses, handle visual context, and support 97+ languages with accent consistency
- Gemini 3.5 Transcribe achieves 4.0% word error rate (streaming) and 2.6% (non-streaming), with automatic code-switching and custom vocabulary biasing for domain-specific terms
- Extended Thinking variant adds multi-step reasoning capabilities, ranking #1 on Artificial Analysis' Speech-to-Speech leaderboard
- Google's full audio suite includes speech translation (70+ languages), text-to-speech, and music generation all available in the Gemini API
FreeFlow is a free, open source dictation app for Mac that uses AI transcription and context-aware cleanup to turn speech into text, replacing paid alternatives like Whisper Flow and Superwhisper. You bring your own API key (Groq or compatible), so there's no subscription or data retention on FreeFlow's servers.
- Hold Fn to dictate or use customizable keyboard shortcuts; Edit Mode lets you highlight text and transform it with voice commands like "make this shorter"
- Context-aware cleanup reads your current app to spell names and terms correctly, with support for custom vocabulary and simpler post-processing if you prefer
- Works with any OpenAI-compatible provider (Groq, Ollama, LM Studio) and supports local models with configurable timeouts for slower hardware
After six months and over 44,000 dictated words with Wispr Flow at 161 wpm, the author tried FluidVoice. It’s an open-source, local Mac app that corrects in real time without an API key and handles slang better. They canceled their paid plan in favor of FluidVoice.
- After 44,414 dictated words at 161 wpm (top 0.1% of Wispr users), the author switched from Wispr Flow to FluidVoice
- FluidVoice is open-source, runs entirely locally on Mac with no API key or cloud dependency, and corrects mistakes in real time
- It handled slang better than expected and matched or beat Wispr Flow's performance, prompting cancellation of the paid Wispr subscription