Said
“Na-approve na ba yung leave request ko for next week?”
Typed — unedited
Na-approve na ba yung leave request ko for next week?
exact — hyphen and question mark included
Private, offline Taglish voice typing for Mac
Dictation that speaks Filipino — and never leaves your Mac.
Hold one shortcut, speak in English, Filipino, or Taglish, and Bulong types the result into Slack, Mail, Notes, or any Mac app. Your audio never leaves your computer.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · launching soon
Listening
…na-approve na ba yung leave
Demo
Thirty seconds, start to finish.
Press a key, talk in Taglish, and watch the words land in the app you're using.
Read the demo description
Bulong is activated with its keyboard shortcut. The dictation bar listens to a Taglish sentence, shows the partial transcript, and inserts the final text into the active Mac app. The speech-to-text processing happens entirely on the Mac.
Receipts
It actually types Taglish.
Say the sentence the way you'd actually say it — half English, half Tagalog — and this is what lands. Three real dictations, shown unedited, misses included.
Said
“Pwede mo ba i-double check yung invoice? Baka may mali sa total.”
Typed — unedited
Pwede mo ba i-double check yung invoice? Baka may mali sa total.
exact — “i-double check” intact
Said
“Send mo na lang sa akin yung report bago mag-lunch, please.”
Typed — unedited
Send mo na lang sa akin yung report bago mag-launch please.
one slip — “mag-lunch” came out “mag-launch” (comma dropped too)
Real, unedited results from the developer's own testing — one voice, one mic, his own Mac. Not a benchmark. Transcribed fully on-device, so his voice never left his Mac; neither will yours.
“Bulong” is Tagalog for whisper. It's built by a Filipino developer who code-switches all day — Taglish was never an afterthought.
Privacy
Private by architecture, not by promise.
No cloud
Transcription runs on-device with NVIDIA Parakeet and Whisper.
No account
No sign-up, no email, no license server.
No telemetry
The app makes exactly one kind of network request: downloading a speech model, once.
After the one-time model download, turn off your Wi-Fi and dictate — it still works. That's the whole point.
See exactly what's handled →
How it works
Three keys and your voice.
-
Press your hotkey
⌃⌥Space out of the box — remap it to anything.
-
Speak naturally
Hold to talk, or toggle — in English, Tagalog, or both in one sentence.
-
The text appears where your cursor is
Bulong types the result into whatever app is focused.
See it
Designed to disappear.
The whole app is a menu-bar icon, a dictation bar, and a window for your history.
Features
Everything you need, nothing you don't.
On-device Parakeet + Whisper
Two speech models run locally. Nothing is sent to a server.
Works in every app
Any text field — Slack, Mail, your editor, a browser.
Push-to-talk or toggle
Hold the key while you speak, or tap to start and stop.
Custom hotkey
⌃⌥Space by default. Remap it to whatever fits your hands.
Local, searchable history
Every transcript saved to a plaintext file you can search and export.
10 languages incl. Filipino
Dictate in 10 languages — Filipino included, code-switching and all.
Translate to English
Speak another language and get English text, via Whisper.
Your clipboard is preserved
Bulong pastes without clobbering what you already copied.
Compared
Where Bulong differs.
| Bulong | Typical cloud dictation app | Apple's built-in | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where your audio goes | This Mac | Their servers | On-device when supported; check settings |
| Price | One-time | Monthly | Free |
| Account required | No | Yes | No |
| Works without an internet connection | Yes | No | Depends on language and settings |
| Filipino (Tagalog) & Taglish | Yes, on-device | Varies | Varies |
| Activation | Custom shortcut; hold or toggle | Varies | Custom shortcut; toggle |
| History you can read and export | Plaintext file | Their database | None |
Apple Dictation capabilities vary by macOS version, language, region, and settings. Check Apple’s current documentation.
Pricing
One price. No subscription, ever.
Launching soon
$29once
- One Mac
- 14-day full free trial
- Free updates throughout 1.x
No account. No recurring charge. Start with the free 14-day trial, buy only if you keep it.
Learn
Choose dictation that fits how you actually speak.
Plain-language guides to Taglish voice typing, private offline transcription, and the limits of built-in Mac dictation.
Language
Taglish dictation for Mac
What code-switching changes, what accuracy to expect, and how to test it with your own voice.
Read the guide → PrivacyOffline dictation for Mac
How on-device speech-to-text works and what to verify before trusting a dictation app.
Read the guide → ComparisonBulong vs Apple Dictation
Compare Taglish support, hotkeys, history, offline use, and the tradeoffs of each option.
Read the comparison →
FAQ
Questions.
Is it really offline?
Yes. Once the speech model has downloaded, Bulong needs no network at all. Turn off your Wi-Fi and it still transcribes.
How good is the Taglish, really?
Good enough to publish the raw results. In the developer's own testing — one voice, one mic, real work sentences — heavy code-switching came out at roughly 95% word accuracy, misses included. The unedited dictations are further up this page. Set the language to Filipino, speak the way you actually speak, and expect a sentence to land in about 6–8 seconds once the model is loaded — the first dictation after launch takes longer while the model warms up.
Which Macs does it run on?
Any Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later) running macOS 14 or newer.
Do I need to install anything else?
No. The speech models download inside the app the first time you use them — no command line, no extra packages.
How big is the download?
The app itself is small. The English model is about 600 MB, downloaded once and kept on your Mac.
Can I use it in Slack, VS Code, anywhere?
Any app with a text field. Bulong types the result into whatever window is focused.
How do updates work?
Free updates throughout the 1.x series are included in the price.
Why “Bulong”?
It's Tagalog for “whisper.” Bulong is built by a Filipino developer who dictates in Taglish every day — the name and the language support come from the same place.
Talk to us
Questions or accuracy reports?
Email the maker directly. English and Taglish are both welcome.
Talk to the person building Bulong
Send a feature request, a tricky Taglish sentence, or ask for a short walkthrough.
Try it in Taglish. Then turn off your Wi-Fi.
Get notified at launch
$29 once · free 14-day trial
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · launching soon