alt Hacker NewsWispr Flow is a masterclass in STT. Apple's solution feels like it's from the last century in comparison. Same applies with Apple's TTS when you have ElevenLabs and OpenAI running laps around it. All I need is for my iPhone to do those things natively at the same quality level (because in Apple's walled garden that's the only way to get them usable everywhere).
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adamcharnock • today at 2:11 PM
FWIW - I also really like Wispr Flow, but I moved to running the 'Whisper Large' model locally using Handy (https://github.com/cjpais/Handy), which has been essentially as good, while also having lower latency.
But Apple's uses so few system resources and runs fully on device on newer iPhone models (16+ I believe). It's so efficient. I really enjoy using Handy with Parakeet as the model, but the system resource usage is a monster compared to Apple's (although very good).
Looks like Wispr Flow uses a cloud model [0]:
> Cloud based speech processing infrastructure for 1B users
It gets to be a messy comparison because my iPhone can do STT with no latency pretty well fully on device, but Wispr Flow requires a cloud model, but to be fair, older Apple devices do as well. It's not an apples and oranges comparison, but I think those technical details make this a non direct comparison in a few ways.
For on-device with low system resource usage, Apple's is pretty damn good.
[0] https://wisprflow.ai/post/technical-challenges