LesskeysLesskeys press kit
Facts, boilerplate and assets for anyone writing about Lesskeys, an app for Mac and Windows that turns speech into text without sending the audio anywhere. Take what you need; no permission required, no form to fill in.
The facts
Fact sheet
Everything on this page may be quoted, reproduced or republished without asking. The screenshots and icon are cleared for editorial use. The facts below were read from the live Mac App Store listing on 2026-10-15 and from our download page.
- Name
- Lesskeys
- What it is
- An app for Mac and Windows for system-wide dictation and on-device transcription of calls, meetings and media files, with a clipboard history
- Developer
- Dmytro Tymoshchuk, solo developer
- Platforms
- Mac: macOS 13.0 or later, Apple silicon (M1 or newer) required. Windows: Windows 10 and 11
- Price
- $0 to download from the Mac App Store. One purchase of $49.99 unlocks everything, paid once, no subscription. The Mac and Windows downloads from our website have the same one-time $49.99 unlock, bought inside the app
- Free tier
- 5 minutes of dictation a day, plus 5 audio and 5 video transcriptions in total. Recording is unlimited, and re-transcribing something you already transcribed does not use another one. The clipboard history is free and keeps up to 200 items on Mac and up to 500 on Windows
- Where to get it
- The Mac App Store (App ID 6783061182), the Mac download and the Windows installer, all linked from lesskeys.com/download
- Current version
- Mac App Store 3.1.4 (updated 2026-09-06) · Mac download 1.8.9 (build 198) · Windows 1.8.8.255
- First released
- 2026-06-29, on the Mac App Store
- Category
- Productivity / Utilities
- Download size
- Mac App Store 77.7 MB · Mac download 95 MB · Windows installer 94 MB. A small starter speech model is built in; larger Whisper models (about 142 MB to 3 GB) download once, when you choose them
- Languages
- 99, auto-detected
- Network use
- None in the transcription path. Once the models are downloaded the app works with Wi-Fi off. The direct downloads also contact lesskeys.com to activate a license and to check for updates
- Accounts
- No account and no sign-in. No tracking in the app
- Press contact
- press@lesskeys.com
Copy
Boilerplate: paste any of these verbatim
Three lengths, already fact-checked. If you need a different one, ask.
One line
Lesskeys is an app for Mac and Windows for dictation and transcription that runs entirely on your own computer. Try it before you pay; $49.99 once to unlock, no subscription.
Fifty words
Lesskeys is a native app for Mac and Windows for private voice-to-text. Press a hotkey, speak, and your words become text you can paste into any app. It also transcribes calls, meetings and video files with automatic speaker labels. Everything is processed on your computer: no cloud, no account, no subscription. Try it before you pay; one payment of $49.99 removes the limits.
Hundred words
Lesskeys is a native app for Mac and Windows that turns speech into text without sending audio anywhere. A global hotkey dictates into any application; a recorder captures calls, meetings and screen sessions and returns a transcript with automatic speaker labels, searchable across every recording you have made. All of it runs on your own computer using local speech models, so it works with networking switched off and no recording ever reaches a server. It can be tried before you pay, with metered limits and a single $49.99 purchase that unlocks it permanently, with no subscription and no account. Built by one developer, Dmytro Tymoshchuk.
The product
What it does
- System-wide dictation
A global hotkey, ⌥. on Mac and Alt+Space on Windows, turns what you say into text for any app.
- Calls, meetings, screen
Records microphone and system audio together, optionally with screen video, and transcribes the result locally. No bot joins the call. Tell the people you record; some places require everyone's consent.
- Speaker labels
On-device diarization separates who spoke when, and remembers a voice across future recordings once you name it.
- A searchable archive
Every transcript is searchable by phrase, speaker or date, so a decision from three months ago is findable.
- A clipboard history
A shortcut, ⇧⌘V on Mac and Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows, opens your recent copies. The clipboard history is free and keeps up to 200 items on Mac and up to 500 on Windows.
Honest limits
What it does not do
Stated plainly, because a reviewer finds all of this in the first ten minutes and it reads better coming from us.
- It does not paste for you in the Mac App Store version.
The App Store version is sandboxed: dictated text is copied to the clipboard and you press ⌘V. The Mac download can paste for you once you allow Accessibility in macOS, and the Windows version pastes with Ctrl+V.
- It needs Apple silicon on a Mac.
Transcription runs on the Metal GPU, so an M1 or newer is required.
- The Mac download is not notarized by Apple.
It is signed by us, so macOS asks you to confirm once.
- The limits before you pay are real.
Dictation is capped at 5 minutes a day and first-time transcription at 5 audio and 5 video files in total. Recording is unlimited, and re-transcription does not use another one. Please describe these as limits rather than leaving them out: a reader will meet them.
- It has no ratings yet.
The Mac App Store listing has zero ratings. We would rather say so than have you discover it.
- It is not an editor.
No timeline, no synthetic voice, no video editing.
- It makes no certification claim.
No regulatory certification and no legal-record guarantee. The claim is narrower and checkable: the audio stays on your device.
Test it
How to verify the privacy claim in one minute
This is the claim worth testing, and it is falsifiable. Install the app, let it download a speech model once, then turn off Wi-Fi. Dictation, recording, transcription and speaker labelling all behave identically, because there is no network call in the transcription path. Any network monitor will show the same thing.
Background for the test: what on-device transcription means and how to transcribe a video without uploading it.
Background
The story
Lesskeys started in April 2026 as a personal tool. Dmytro Tymoshchuk wanted to stop typing everything, to keep a reliable record of his own meetings, what was discussed and what was decided, and to have that record stay on his own machine rather than in a transcription vendor's account. Nothing on the market did all three at once without a subscription and a cloud upload, so he built it. It became a product the way most useful tools do: other people asked for a copy. More than fifteen people he knows personally now use it in their daily work.
Download
Assets
Cleared for editorial use, no attribution required. Screenshots are 1440×900 JPEG.
- Download everything as a ZIP: five screenshots, the app icon and a plain-text fact sheet.
- Screenshots: hero · dictation · speaker labels · call recording · recordings library
- App icon: 512×512 PNG
Please use the name Lesskeys: one word, capital L. Earlier development names appear in some older material and are retired.
FAQ
Questions journalists ask
Is Lesskeys really fully offline?
Yes, in the part that matters: transcription. Speech models are downloaded once, and after that there is no network call in the transcription path. Switch Wi-Fi off and the app behaves identically; that is the simplest way to verify it.
Can I get a review copy?
There is nothing to send and nothing to ask for: Lesskeys can be downloaded and tried without paying, and that is the review copy. It is metered rather than time-limited (5 minutes of dictation a day, plus 5 audio and 5 video transcriptions in total), so it does not expire while a review is in progress.
Who makes it?
One person, Dmytro Tymoshchuk. There is no company behind it, no funding and no team.
What is the business model?
Downloading costs nothing; a single purchase of $49.99 unlocks everything permanently: an in-app purchase in the Mac App Store, and a purchase inside the app through our reseller Creem on the direct downloads. No subscription, no account and no tracking in the app. Before you pay it is metered: 5 minutes of dictation a day, plus 5 audio and 5 video transcriptions in total. Recording is unlimited, and re-transcribing something you already transcribed does not use another one.
Does it paste text into apps automatically?
On Windows, yes: it pastes with Ctrl+V and restores your clipboard. On a Mac, the Mac App Store version copies dictated text to the clipboard and you press Command-V; the Mac download can paste for you once you allow Accessibility in macOS.
Which computers does it run on?
Apple silicon Macs (M1 or newer) running macOS 13 Ventura or later, and PCs running Windows 10 or 11.
How many languages can it transcribe?
99, detected automatically. You can also restrict it to the languages you actually speak, which improves accuracy on short recordings.
Are there user numbers or ratings you can share?
No, and we will not imply otherwise. The Mac App Store listing currently has zero ratings. What is true is that more than fifteen people the developer knows personally use it daily.
Write to us
Press contact
Email press@lesskeys.com. Ask for a specific screenshot, a demo, or an answer to anything not covered here. You do not need a review code: you can try the app before you buy.