Impulse

Install Impulse

This guide takes you from the download to your first dictation.

1. Download

  • Download Impulse from this page.
  • Files forwarded through chat apps such as WhatsApp can arrive damaged, and macOS then refuses to open them.

Impulse runs on a Mac. If you are reading this on a phone, open getimpulseapp.com on your Mac.

Download Impulse

Free. No account, no subscription.

About 30 MB. Needs macOS 26.2 or newer.

Signed and notarized disk image (.dmg).

  • Needs an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later).
  • The speech model is a separate download: Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, about 480 MB.
  • Parakeet Ultra 0.6B, about 630 MB, is a newer version of the same model.

Download and install

  1. Download Impulse with the link above.
  2. Open your Downloads folder and double-click the Impulse disk image.
  3. In the window that opens, drag the Impulse icon onto the Applications folder. When the copy finishes, click the eject button next to Impulse in the Finder sidebar.
  4. Open your Applications folder and double-click Impulse. If macOS asks whether you want to open an app downloaded from the internet, click Open.
  5. Find the Impulse icon in the menu bar, near the clock. Click it and choose Home to open the Impulse window.
10:24
Illustration. The Impulse icon sits in the menu bar, near the clock.

You should seeThe Impulse icon sits in the menu bar, near the clock.

2. Set up

2. Set up

Permissions: three to allow

  • Impulse needs three macOS permissions: Input Monitoring and Accessibility for the shortcuts, and the microphone to hear you.
  • Accessibility also lets Impulse paste text for you.
  • macOS asks for Input Monitoring when Impulse first opens, and for the microphone when you first dictate.
  • You start Accessibility yourself.
  1. Input Monitoring lets Impulse notice your shortcut while another app is in front. When macOS asks, click Open System Settings. In Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring, turn on Impulse.
  2. Accessibility lets the shortcuts work, and lets Impulse paste text into the app you are using. macOS does not ask for it when Impulse opens, so start it yourself:
    1. Click the Impulse icon in the menu bar and choose Settings.
    2. Under Permissions, click Open System Settings next to Accessibility.
    3. If macOS shows a dialog, click Open System Settings in it.
    4. In Privacy & Security → Accessibility, turn on Impulse.
  3. Quit Impulse and open it again. The shortcuts start working only after both permissions are on and Impulse restarts.
  4. Microphone lets Impulse hear you. The first time you dictate, macOS asks for it. Click Allow.
  • When a permission is on, Settings → Permissions shows a green check next to it.
  • If you skip Accessibility, the shortcuts do nothing, and Impulse does not paste for you.
  • If your text does not appear, open History.

You should seeSettings → Permissions shows a green check next to Input Monitoring and Accessibility. The microphone gets its check after your first dictation.

Speech model: download, then Select

  • A speech model turns your voice into text on your Mac.
  • Nothing is transcribed until you download a model and select it.
  1. In the Impulse window, open Speech to Text Models.
  2. Click Download next to Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, about 480 MB. It works out which of 25 European languages you speak, with no language setting.
  3. When the download finishes, click Select next to the model.

How to tell that it worked:

  • The Select button is gone.
  • Parakeet shows a green check in its place.
  • A Whisper model shows the word Selected.
  • On a Whisper model, a green check alone means only that the download finished.

Before the download

Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3

CC-BY-4.0 · 483.3 MB · Not downloaded

Download

After the download

Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3

CC-BY-4.0 · 483.3 MB · Ready

Select

After Select

Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3

CC-BY-4.0 · 483.3 MB · Ready · Selected

Illustration of the Parakeet row in Speech to Text Models.

Languages

  • Parakeet covers 25 European languages:
    • Bulgarian
    • Croatian
    • Czech
    • Danish
    • Dutch
    • English
    • Estonian
    • Finnish
    • French
    • German
    • Greek
    • Hungarian
    • Italian
    • Latvian
    • Lithuanian
    • Maltese
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Romanian
    • Russian
    • Slovak
    • Slovenian
    • Spanish
    • Swedish
    • Ukrainian
  • Parakeet Ultra 0.6B covers the same 25 languages.
  • For any other language, download a Whisper model marked Multi (multilingual), and select it.
  • Then set your language in Settings → Transcription.

You should seeIn Speech to Text Models, the Select button is gone and Parakeet shows a green check.

3. Dictate

3. Dictate

First dictation

Free the shortcut first

  • macOS uses Option Command Space to open a Spotlight search in a Finder window.
  • If a Finder window opens when you press it, turn that macOS shortcut off:
    1. Open System Settings, then click Keyboard.
    2. Click Keyboard Shortcuts, then click Spotlight.
    3. Turn off Show Finder search window, then click Done.
  • Or choose another shortcut in Impulse, in Settings → Hotkeys.
  1. Click where you want the text, for example in a note or an email.
  2. Press Option Command Space and speak. The recording panel shows Recording, a live waveform, and a timer.
  3. Press Option Command Space again. When transcription finishes, your text appears where your cursor is.

Say at least one full sentence. Impulse does not transcribe very short or silent clips.

You should seeYour text appears where your cursor is.

If your text appeared, Impulse is set up.

If something does not work, read the common fixes.

Optional features

Everything here is optional. Each item links to its section in the manual.

  • Text Transform tidies your text with an AI model on your Mac. Download the model in Language Models, then turn on Transform transcriptions with AI in Settings → Text Transform. It needs an Apple Silicon Mac. The model, Qwen3.5 4B, is about 3.1 GB. While Text Transform is on, Impulse keeps the model in memory, about 3 GB, so each dictation is tidied in a few seconds.
    Read about Text Transform
  • Filler Words is on by default. Open Filler Words in the Impulse window to edit the list.
    Read about Filler Words
  • Custom Vocabulary helps Impulse recognize names and specialist terms. Open Custom Vocabulary to add yours.
    Read about Custom Vocabulary
  • History keeps your saved recordings and transcripts. You can play, search, and transcribe them again.
    Read about History
  • Review HUD holds your text after a recording so you can edit it first. Press Control Option Command R while recording to turn it on.
    Read about the Review HUD
  • Preferred microphones keep dictation on the microphone you choose. List them in order in Settings → Audio, so connecting AirPods does not move dictation to the AirPods microphone.
    Read about microphones
  • Shortcuts
    Change the dictation shortcuts in Settings → Hotkeys. The defaults are Shift Command P to pause and Command Escape to cancel. Press Shift Command B while recording or paused to turn Text Transform on or off. That choice also applies to later recordings until you change it again.
    Read about recording
  • Links
    Open a section of Impulse from Terminal, for example with open "impulse://history".
    Read about opening Impulse fast

If something does not work

What you seeWhat to do
You pressed Option Command Space twice and no text appeared, or the panel said “No transcription model loaded”.Open Speech to Text Models and click Select on your downloaded model. A selected Parakeet model shows a green check. A selected Whisper model shows Selected. If your model is already selected, check the rows below.
The shortcut does not start recording.Open Settings → Permissions and check Input Monitoring and Accessibility. Turn on any that are off. Then quit Impulse and open it again.
Your text was not pasted, or the panel said “Accessibility permission needed for auto-paste”.Press Command V. If your text does not appear, open History. To paste automatically, turn on Accessibility (see Permissions).
Another language came out as nonsense.Your model probably does not cover that language. Download and select a Whisper model marked Multi (multilingual). Then set your language in Settings → Transcription.
macOS does not open the downloaded file.Delete the file and download Impulse again from this page.
macOS says that you cannot use this version of Impulse with this version of macOS.Impulse needs macOS 26.2 or newer. Open System Settings → General → Software Update, update macOS, then open Impulse again.
Something else.Read Fixing common problems in the manual.