Parrot is in active development. Here's what we've built so far and what's coming next.
v0.1.6
LatestMay 7, 2026
Added
Custom vocabulary now biases the transcriber itself — Whisper, Deepgram, and ElevenLabs get hinted with your saved terms so words like “Tauri” or “Gujarati” come through correctly the first time
Optional “Use when” context per vocabulary word — Parrot can spell “Tauri” in software contexts and leave “tory” alone in political ones
Periodic update checks so you’re prompted when a new version ships
macOS microphone permission status now surfaces in onboarding and settings, with a banner when access is missing
Improved
The HUD chip now expands from the center of the orb, not from a corner, so it stays visually anchored to where the icon was
Fixed
Empty dictations (silence, accidental hotkey taps) no longer create history entries or paste blanks
Very short local-whisper inputs return an empty transcript instead of surfacing an error
Hero site favicon now resolves (migrated from .ico to .png)
v0.1.5
May 3, 2026
Added
Manual Ollama setup fallback — if the automatic install fails, the wizard now walks you through installing Ollama yourself and resumes from where it left off
Fixed
Onboarding now persists setup mode before saving your profile, so local-setup and tour steps no longer lose track of the local user
Improved
Cleaner onboarding transitions — dropped the route cross-fade in favor of stable layout heights and instant step changes
v0.1.4
May 3, 2026
Fixed
Local setup no longer hangs on “Installing Ollama…” — installer now elevates through a native macOS password prompt instead of a stuck sudo call
Setup correctly detects an existing Ollama install — including users on Ollama.app who never ran “Install command line”
Improved
Local mode no longer requires Homebrew — CMake (a build-from-source dependency) is the only prerequisite, and the official cmake.org installer works fine
Default dictation hotkey shown as fn across the marketing site and download page
Blog posts now render markdown tables properly
v0.1.3
May 2, 2026
Added
Floating HUD orb shows dictation status and can be dragged anywhere on screen
History table with grouping by date, one-click copy, and delete with confirmation
Delete a dictation removes it from local storage and the cloud (including S3 audio)
Improved
Local Ollama cleanup now respects your custom vocabulary
Reuses an existing Ollama instance, warms up the model, and cleans up child processes on exit
Tuned history group header contrast for readability
Fixed
Paste now uses CGEvent for Cmd+V instead of osascript (more reliable)
Audio buffer is cleared before each recording to prevent stale data
Microphone permission prompt now appears correctly on macOS
v0.1.2
April 30, 2026
Added
Competitor comparison pages and Compare link in the marketing site nav
Four new blog posts
Open Graph images and SEO metadata across marketing pages
Enhanced download page with FAQ
Improved
Subscribe flow replaces the old waitlist (new /subscribe route and component)
API consolidated to PostgreSQL (SQLite support removed)
Fixed
PATH resolution for GUI-launched apps on macOS
Removed
Framer Motion animations from the setup wizard
v0.1.1
April 29, 2026
Added
Download page dynamically fetches the latest release from GitHub
Improved
CI now ships Apple Silicon-only builds; download page updated to match
v0.1.0
Initial releaseApril 29, 2026
Added
Native macOS menu bar app — press a hotkey, speak, and text appears at your cursor
In-process Whisper transcription with Metal acceleration (whisper-rs)
Customizable dictation hotkey with fn-key support
Silent background auto-updater with sidebar banner
Accessibility permission step in onboarding
Centralized error handling with Sonner toast notifications
GitHub Releases CI workflow for Tauri builds
Marketing site, blog, and download page
Improved
Local-first launch — free local mode for life, no account required
Simplified onboarding with local-first default
Friendlier model names in the setup wizard
Safer copy-paste that handles missing accessibility permission
Cleanup prompts hardened against instruction-following
Removed
BYOK API keys section, cloud-setup route, and pricing page (cloud mode coming later)
Standalone whisper.cpp server (replaced by in-process transcription)
Coming up
What we're working on
Cloud mode with sync across devices and managed transcription
Windows support via Tauri's cross-platform build
Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Multi-lingual transcription with automatic language detection
No dates - we ship when it's ready.
Always improving
Subscribe for product updates and changelog notes.
Parrot