Why offline
Your microphone is not a product.
Three reasons on-device recognition is the right default, and one honest limitation.
1. Privacy you do not have to read a policy to get
When recognition runs on your device, there is no recording to retain, no transcript to store on someone's server, and no third party to subpoena. Lawyers, clinicians, journalists and anyone under an NDA can dictate without checking a compliance matrix first.
2. Latency you can feel
Round-trips to a data center add a beat between speaking and seeing text. On a modern laptop the local model keeps up as you talk, and it keeps working on a plane, in a basement, or on hotel Wi-Fi.
3. Costs that do not scale with your words
Cloud recognition costs the vendor per minute, which is why cloud dictation tends to be a subscription with tight caps. Local recognition costs nothing per word, which is why we can offer lifetime licenses.
The honest limitation
Optional features that use a large cloud language model, such as some rewriting transforms, do leave the device if you turn them on. Vaitly Voice labels every one of them, and the default rewriting runs locally.
Read the privacy policy for the exact list of what we do and do not process.