Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Sotto: Sotto is a native macOS voice-to-text dictation app that turns speech into text system-wide using local AI transcription models. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Aqua Voice when dictating emails, documents, and slack messages hands-free across desktop apps matters most, and Sotto when privacy-first transcription of imported audio recordings on-device matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone.
Sotto is a native macOS voice-to-text dictation app that turns speech into text system-wide using local AI transcription models.
Aqua Voice is an AI dictation tool built by Aqua Voice, Inc. (a Y Combinator startup) that converts spoken words into written text in real time. Rather than a standalone transcription window, it works system-wide: users hold a key (such as Space) and speak, and the dictated text is inserted into whatever app is in focus, including Gmail, Google Docs, Slack, code editors, and AI chat tools. It runs on macOS and iOS, with the iPhone app now live. Aqua is powered by Avalon, the company's proprietary speech-to-text model trained on prompt-style speech, code, and email, and it refines grammar and phrasing as you talk. It supports context awareness of on-screen content, a custom dictionary for technical terms and names, natural-language editing commands ("make this a list," "rephrase that"), style adaptation, and multilingual input across dozens of languages. It is aimed at developers, knowledge workers, and content creators who want a faster alternative to typing for emails, documents, messages, prompts, and code.
Best suited for
Sotto is a native Swift dictation app for macOS 13 and later that converts speech to text in real time. It works as a system-wide push-to-talk layer: the user holds a hotkey, speaks, and Sotto inserts clean text into whatever app is in focus, from Slack and Notion to Xcode and email fields. Audio is transcribed by local engines, including OpenAI Whisper models (Tiny through Large V3 Turbo and Distil Large V3) and NVIDIA Parakeet v2/v3, so by default recordings never leave the Mac; users can optionally connect cloud providers such as OpenAI or Groq with their own API keys for added accuracy. Beyond live dictation, it can import and re-transcribe audio files, supports 90+ languages, keeps a searchable history of recordings with timestamps, and offers a custom vocabulary dictionary. One-click AI processing can rewrite, summarize, translate, or reformat dictated text. It is aimed at developers, writers, and privacy-conscious professionals who want fast, local voice input rather than a cloud meeting-bot service.
Best suited for
Aqua Voice is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Sotto is a free tier with paid upgrades (paid). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Aqua Voice | Sotto |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | System-wide dictation that inserts text into any focused app (Gmail, Docs, Slack, code editors, AI chats) | System-wide push-to-talk dictation that inserts text into any app |
| Standout feature | Avalon proprietary speech-to-text model tuned for technical vocabulary, code, and prompt-style speech | Local on-device transcription via Whisper and NVIDIA Parakeet models |
| Team usage | Custom dictionary for names, brands, and technical terms | Audio file import and re-transcription with searchable, timestamped history |
| Integrations | Natural-language editing commands like 'make this a list' or 'rephrase that' mid-dictation | Support for 90+ languages with per-language hotkeys |
| Languages & capture | Context awareness of on-screen content, including code syntax | One-click AI processing to summarize, translate, or rewrite dictated text |
| Best-fit workflow | Multilingual input across dozens of languages | Optional cloud transcription via user-supplied OpenAI or Groq API keys |
Aqua Voice
Choose Aqua Voice if you need dictating emails, documents, and slack messages hands-free across desktop apps — strengths include low-friction, system-wide voice input that works inside existing apps with no per-app setup.
Sotto
Choose Sotto if you need hands-free dictation of emails, messages, and documents across mac apps — strengths include local processing keeps audio on-device for strong privacy.
Aqua Voice
Sotto
It depends on your workflow. Aqua Voice is strong for dictating emails, documents, and slack messages hands-free across desktop apps, while Sotto is strong for hands-free dictation of emails, messages, and documents across mac apps. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Aqua Voice is a free tier with paid upgrades and Sotto is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Aqua Voice and Sotto.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. AskElephant: AI workflow platform for revenue teams that captures calls and meetings and automates CRM updates, handoffs, and coaching. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Askmeety: A bot-free, fully on-device AI meeting notetaker for macOS that records, transcribes, summarizes, and searches your meetings locally without uploading audio to any server. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Aspect: AI interview assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes recruiting interviews, then autofills ATS scorecards. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Attendee: Open-source, self-hostable meeting bot API that sends bots into Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to capture recordings and transcripts. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Attention: AI conversation intelligence platform that records and transcribes sales calls, scores them against frameworks, and automates CRM updates and follow-ups. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Attio Call Intelligence: Attio's native call intelligence records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings and syncs every conversation to the Attio CRM automatically. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. AudioNotes: AI note taker for voice, audio, video, and text that records meetings and memos and turns them into structured notes and summaries. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. AudiosTranscribe: French-focused, bot-free meeting transcription tool with European inference, summaries, action plans, and automatic audio deletion. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Audiosum: AI transcription platform with Arabic dialect support that transcribes and summarizes meetings, lectures and videos. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Aurelius: Research repository and insights platform for tagging interview data, surfacing themes, and keeping qualitative insights discoverable over time. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. Auris AI: Southeast Asia–built AI platform for transcribing audio and video, generating subtitles, and producing meeting and lecture notes across regional languages. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.