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Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

withaqua.com

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Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#12
post #9

Real-time text output à la Apple Dictation with the accuracy of Whisper is something I've been looking for recently - I'll definitely give Aqua a spin. MacWhisper [0] (the app I settled on) is conspicuously missing from your benchmarks [1]. How does it compare? [0]: https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper [1]: https://withaqua.com/blog/benchmark-nov-2024

We're more accurate and much faster than Mac Whisper, even their strongest model (Whisper Cpp Large V3).

For that benchmarking table, you can use Whisper Large V3 as a stand-in for Mac Whisper and Super Whisper accuracy.

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#13
post #11

How does it compare to https://wisprflow.ai ? btw, grats!

Thanks!

We're faster, more accurate, and have a streaming option. Aqua can go from key-up to paste in as little as 450ms. Flow was closer to 1000 in our tests.

Overall, you'll notice we make a few more tweaks to the output than Wisprflow.

For example, Aqua + Cursor is very powerful - we syntax highlight your transcript. The easiest way to see this is to use streaming mode (double press Fn) + deep context + cursor and try asking it to change something.

This also works in other "context rich" environments.

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#14

This looks like it'll slurp up all your data and upload it into a cloud. Thanks, no. I want privacy, offline mode and source code for something as crucial to system security as an input method. "we also collect and process your voice inputs [..] We leverage this data for improvements and development [..] Sharing of your information [..] service providers [..] OpenAI" https://withaqua.com/privacy

Local inference only is an absolute requirement. It's not even really all that accessible if it's online only. I can say this as someone that's used over 20000 hours worth of voice dictation and computer control.

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#15
I currently use Talon, which I note is not in your benchmarks.

I can't find any documentation on how Aqua works, or how it compares, so I'm not sure it's meant to be a replacement / competitor to Talon? What are you configuring? How are you telling it that you like "genz" style in Slack? Can I create custom configurations / macros?

One thing I like about Talon is it's not magic. Which maybe is not what you're going for. But I am giving it explicit commands that I know it will understand (if it understands my accent obvs), as opposed to guessing and constructing a human language vague sentence and hope that an llm will work it out. Which means it feels like something I can actually become fast with, and build up muscle memory of.

Also that it's completely offline, so I can actually run it on a work computer without my security folks freaking out.

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#16
post #15

I currently use Talon, which I note is not in your benchmarks. I can't find any documentation on how Aqua works, or how it compares, so I'm not sure it's meant to be a replacement / competitor to Talon? What are you configuring? How are you telling it that you like "genz" style in Slack? Can I create custom configurations / macros? One thing I like about Talon is it's not magic. Which maybe is not what you're going f…

Aqua voice is nothing like talon. I wouldn’t bother trying to compare. It’s a dictation tool. Just entry. Not commands. But it’s bloody impressive. You don’t need to learn anything - you just talk like you would talk to someone across the way from you

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#17
post #11

How does it compare to https://wisprflow.ai ? btw, grats!

Thanks! We're faster, more accurate, and have a streaming option. Aqua can go from key-up to paste in as little as 450ms. Flow was closer to 1000 in our tests. Overall, you'll notice we make a few more tweaks to the output than Wisprflow. For example, Aqua + Cursor is very powerful - we syntax highlight your transcript. The easiest way to see this is to use streaming mode (double press Fn) + deep context + cursor and…

Thanks! I'm tempted to try Speech to Text + Cursor/Copilot for development. It's probably the future since most people can speak faster than they can type.

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#18
post #15

I currently use Talon, which I note is not in your benchmarks. I can't find any documentation on how Aqua works, or how it compares, so I'm not sure it's meant to be a replacement / competitor to Talon? What are you configuring? How are you telling it that you like "genz" style in Slack? Can I create custom configurations / macros? One thing I like about Talon is it's not magic. Which maybe is not what you're going f…

Aqua voice is nothing like talon. I wouldn’t bother trying to compare. It’s a dictation tool. Just entry. Not commands. But it’s bloody impressive. You don’t need to learn anything - you just talk like you would talk to someone across the way from you

Oh, from the video I got the impression it was more than that, based on it recognising app contexts and the like. I guess that's mostly just icing on the cake for the core dictation part.

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#19
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aqua voice is nothing like talon. I wouldn’t bother trying to compare. It’s a dictation tool. Just entry. Not commands. But it’s bloody impressive. You don’t need to learn anything - you just talk like you would talk to someone across the way from you

Oh, from the video I got the impression it was more than that, based on it recognising app contexts and the like. I guess that's mostly just icing on the cake for the core dictation part.

>recognizing app contexts

Users have different preferences on the text format they input into different apps. Aqua is able to pick up on these explicit and implicit preferences across apps – but no "open XYZ app" commands, yea

Re: Show HN: Aqua Voice 2 – Fast Voice Input for Mac and Windows

#20
post #15

I currently use Talon, which I note is not in your benchmarks. I can't find any documentation on how Aqua works, or how it compares, so I'm not sure it's meant to be a replacement / competitor to Talon? What are you configuring? How are you telling it that you like "genz" style in Slack? Can I create custom configurations / macros? One thing I like about Talon is it's not magic. Which maybe is not what you're going f…

We're building something different, but there is some overlap. Aqua is built for max speed, while keeping accuracy high. To achieve that, inference runs in a datacenter (for now).

You can customize Aqua using custom instructions, similar to ChatGPT custom instructions, and get some Talon functionality from it:

In my own, I have:

1. Breaking the paragraphs with three or four sentences.

2. Don't start a sentence with "and".

3. Use lowercase in Slack and iMessage.

4. Here are some common terminal commands...

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