Effective October 12, 2026
Privacy policy
Macrophone is built so that what you say stays on your devices. This policy covers the Macrophone iPhone app, Macrophone for Mac, and this website.
The short version#
- Your speech is turned into text on your iPhone. Audio is never kept, never saved and never sent anywhere.
- The text goes directly from your iPhone to your Mac over your local network, encrypted. There is no Macrophone server and no account.
- Neither app collects data about you or how you use it. There is no analytics, advertising or tracking code in either app. The App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected.
- Text only leaves your devices through something you set up: an app you send it to, Ask Claude, a webhook or script, or Notes and Reminders syncing through iCloud. The Mac app labels everything that sends text off your Mac.
What the iPhone app does with your voice#
When you tap the mic, Macrophone listens with Apple's speech recognition, which it requires to run on the iPhone itself. Languages your iPhone can't recognize on-device aren't offered, so your audio is never sent to Apple or anyone else for transcription. The audio is processed as you speak and then discarded; it is never written to storage.
If cleanup is on, the transcript is tidied by Apple's on-device language model, on your iPhone. The text is not sent to any server for this.
The iPhone keeps a history of your last 50 dictations, as text, only on the phone. You can clear it or turn it off in Settings. Your custom dictionary and settings are stored on the phone too.
What the Mac app stores#
- History: your last 50 dictations, raw and cleaned, with the time, the profile used and, for Ask Claude, Claude's reply, stored only on your Mac in
~/Library/Application Support/Macrophone. You can clear it or turn it off. With history off, only the most recent dictation is held in memory until the app quits. - Profiles, snippets and settings: including any webhook URLs, scripts, vault paths and per-app rules you add.
- Your Anthropic API key, if you use Ask Claude: in the macOS login keychain only. It is sent only to Anthropic's API and never appears in settings files, history or diagnostics.
- Pairing keys: the key shared with each paired iPhone, kept in the macOS Keychain.
- API token: the local API's token, in a file only your user account can read.
Macrophone itself syncs nothing to iCloud or any other service. Clearing history on one device does not clear it on the other. If you save dictations to Apple Notes, Reminders or an Obsidian vault, those apps sync them the way they normally do (for example through iCloud), under their own terms.
The iPhone keeps a copy of your Mac's target names, their cleanup levels and voice prefixes, so the Send to list, Shortcuts and controls work while the Mac is away. It never holds text or keys there.
How your iPhone and Mac talk#
The Mac announces itself on your local network with Bonjour, and the iPhone connects to it directly, over your Wi-Fi or a direct device-to-device Wi-Fi link when they're nearby. Pairing creates a secret key on both devices, and every dictation is encrypted and authenticated with it, so other people on the same network can't read or send dictations. iOS asks for Local Network permission for this.
If your Mac can't be reached, the dictation's text waits in a queue on your iPhone until it can be delivered.
Automations you turn on#
Macrophone for Mac can pass your dictations to other software. These only run if you set them up, and the Mac app marks every profile that can send text off your Mac (“Sends text off this Mac”).
- Apps you send to. When a profile pastes into an app, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Slack or a terminal, that app receives the text exactly as if you had typed it, and its own terms apply. A chat app sends it to its service; that's what it's for.
- Ask Claude sends the dictation's text, and any instructions you wrote for the profile, to Anthropic's API with your own API key. Anthropic's terms and privacy policy apply to that request; the reply comes back to your Mac only. The profile editor labels it “Sends text to Anthropic”.
- Obsidian, Apple Notes and Reminders save the text on your Mac: a file in your vault, a note, or a reminder. If you sync those apps (iCloud, Obsidian Sync), the text syncs with them.
- Webhooks send each dictation's text and details (the fields are listed in the docs) to the URL you enter. That service's privacy policy then applies.
- Scripts run commands you write, with the text as input. What happens next is up to the script.
- The local API, command-line tool and MCP server let software on your Mac read your recent dictations. The API only accepts connections from your own Mac, requires a token, and refuses requests from web browsers. If you connect it to an AI assistant, the text you dictate is shared with that assistant under its own terms.
- Shortcuts you build with Macrophone's Dictate Text action can send text wherever your shortcut does.
Permissions#
| Permission | App | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | iPhone | To hear you while you dictate. |
| Speech Recognition | iPhone | To turn your speech into text on the device. |
| Local Network | iPhone | To find and connect to your Mac. |
| Camera | iPhone | Only to scan the pairing QR code, and only when you choose to. |
| Accessibility | Mac | Only if you paste into an app: to paste, find the message box and the right window, press the send key, and fill {{selection}} and {{window}}. |
| Automation (Terminal, iTerm2) | Mac | Optional, asked from the profile editor: to pick a Terminal tab or iTerm2 session by the program running in it. Without it, titles are matched. |
| Automation (Notes, browsers) | Mac | Only for Save to Apple Notes, and for the {{url}} template variable (once per browser). |
| Reminders | Mac | Only for Add to Reminders. |
Updates#
Macrophone for Mac checks this website for new versions. That request includes the app's version and your macOS version, as update checks normally do, and like any web request it reveals your IP address to the web host. It contains nothing about you or your dictations. The iPhone app is updated by the App Store.
Diagnostics#
Both apps have a Share Diagnostics button that creates a plain-text log to help with support: app version, OS and device model, pairing steps, connection errors and delivery results. It never contains dictation text, pairing keys, your API token or your Anthropic API key. You can read it before sending, and it's only sent if you choose to share it, for example by email. We use it only to help with your request and delete it when we're done.
If you've chosen to share crash reports with app developers in your iPhone or Mac settings, Apple may pass anonymous crash reports to us. That is controlled by Apple's settings, not by Macrophone.
This website#
sameer.us/macrophone uses Vercel Web Analytics to count page views, so we can see which pages help people. It sets no cookies and doesn't track you across sites or over time; visits are counted with an anonymous identifier that resets every day. It records the page, the referring site, and your browser, operating system, device type and country. The site is hosted by Vercel, whose servers keep standard request logs. There are no ads and no third-party trackers.
Children#
Macrophone isn't directed at children and collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes#
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date. If a change ever meant an app collected data, the App Store privacy label would change too.
Contact#
Questions about privacy: macrophone@sameer.us. Macrophone is made by Sameer Bhutani.