Image: FluidVoice
FluidVoice, a free open-source dictation app that started on the Mac, has opened an iPhone beta through TestFlight. The company is pitching it as better dictation than Apple's built-in tool, and a keyboard that behaves like a system one. Signing up takes a form with the iPhone model, iOS version and main dictation language.
The app runs speech recognition and a text cleanup step on the phone. The launch art shows two cleanup models, Ripple for performance and Bubble for efficiency, both labelled Fluid-1.1, and the post says the cleanup models are built for iPhone 11 through 18. Words stream in while you speak, and the cleaned text lands when you stop, which is how Apple's own dictation behaves.
Dictation is only part of it. Custom modes reshape output for lists or email, snippets expand saved phrases through a slash command, and the keyboard adds German, Spanish, French and Portuguese. There is also an on-device chat for asking about your recent dictations. Every model runs on the phone, so it works with Wi-Fi off.
🚨 We've solved dictation on iPhone before Apple did.
— FluidVoice (@FluidVoiceApp) November 12, 2026
Introducing the best iOS dictation app and an actual usable keyboard as if Apple made it.
We believe AI should run on-device and we're starting with dictation.
Give our best on-device models a try along with a lot of cool features!
- Custom made dictation cleanup models for any iPhone from 11-18.
- Real time streaming just like Apple dictation.
- Custom modes for lists and emails.
- On-device Fluid Chat.
- Snippets, Clipboard and more.
PS: Please turn ON airplane mode - before you compare us with any other dictation app out there.
Your voice should be yours. Not theirs.
The competitive claim is direct. Turn on airplane mode before comparing the app with other dictation tools, the post says, which frames privacy as the whole point. That is a challenge to test, not a benchmark, and the beta page backs it with posts from testers rather than independent results.
FluidVoice is free and open source, under GPLv3 since late February. The Mac app is available now, Windows is in beta, and Linux and Android are on a waitlist. On the Mac the pipeline pairs Fluid Speech Mini with a Fluid-1 cleanup model, which ranges from 600MB to under 1.5GB depending on the variant.
The iPhone build is early access, not an App Store release, and the company has not published iPhone accuracy figures. Apple is moving in the same direction, having opened Siri to third-party apps in a developer preview. On-device models of this size are a growing category. Whether this one beats the keyboard already on your phone is something only airplane mode will settle.
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