Alter

Alter: Voice-First AI Assistant for macOS

Alter is a native macOS assistant that combines what is on your screen with spoken commands to draft, answer and act inside the apps you already use. It also records and transcribes meetings on the device, with speaker identification, and can run on cloud models, your own API keys or local models.

Key Features

• Screen and App Context: Reads the active app, web page or document, so requests can refer to what is on screen.
• Voice Commands and Dictation: Speech-to-prompt and dictation in 50+ languages with automatic language detection.
• Auto-Insert Anywhere: Inserts AI responses directly into the app you are working in instead of a separate chat window.
• Meeting Recording: Records Zoom, Teams, Meet, WhatsApp and in-person meetings without a bot, then produces transcripts, summaries and action items.
• Speaker Identification: Labels who said what, processed on the device.
• Local and Cloud Models: Bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic keys, run local models through Ollama or LM Studio, or use Alter's routers across 50+ cloud models on the Pro plan.
• Actions and Integrations: More than 80 built-in actions, custom actions, native control of apps like Notes, Calendar and Keynote, and connections to 2,000+ services such as Gmail, Notion and Linear.
• Local Privacy: Chats are encrypted and stored locally, and meeting transcripts can be exported to Markdown or PDF.

Use Cases

• Hands-Free Writing: Dictate emails, messages and drafts and have them inserted straight into the active app.
• Private Meeting Notes: Transcribe calls and in-person meetings on the Mac, with speaker labels and instant reports, without a meeting bot.
• Research: Chat with any website, PDF or document.
• Workflow Automation: Pull meeting context from Notion or Slack and push summaries and action items to a CRM or Linear.

Pricing

• Free: $0, all core features with your own API keys or local models.
• Local+: $29 per year, adds real-time local speech models (Whisper Pro, Parakeet V3) and speaker identification.
• Pro: $240 per year, unlimited access to 50+ cloud models, unlimited meetings and 2,000+ remote tools.
• Lifetime: $720 one-time payment with the same access as Pro.

Getting Started

• Website: https://alterhq.com
• Documentation: https://docs.alterhq.com
• Pricing: https://alterhq.com/pricing

Alter brings voice commands, dictation and private meeting transcription into one Mac app that works with the rest of your tools. It requires macOS 14 or later on Intel or Apple Silicon.