Voice input for Xcode on Mac.
Not for writing Swift. For the documentation comment, the commit message and the test name that actually says what it tests, which are the things that get skipped.
Xcode does not need a plugin for this
Xcode is an ordinary macOS application with ordinary text fields. Anything that can type into the focused field can type into it, which means system wide dictation works in the editor, the source control navigator, the debug console, the terminal pane, the rename sheet and every inspector field, without Xcode knowing it exists.
That is worth saying plainly because the usual advice is to look for an extension. There is nothing to install on the Xcode side and nothing to keep working across Xcode updates.
The parts of iOS work that are prose
Nobody dictates Swift and nobody should. What a day of Xcode actually contains, besides code, is a surprising amount of writing that gets done badly because typing it competes with the work:
- Documentation comments above a type, explaining why it exists rather than repeating its name.
- Commit messages, where the reason for a change is the only thing worth recording and is the thing usually missing.
- Test names that describe the behaviour under test instead of the method being called.
- Pull request descriptions with the approach you rejected and why.
- Release notes, which are written at the worst possible moment and always in a hurry.
- The comment explaining the workaround for the platform bug, which future you will need.
Each of these is a thought you have already had. Recording it is transcription, and transcription is the thing speech is three times faster at.
How to use it
- Put the cursor where the words belong.
- Hold your shortcut. You pick which key in Settings during setup; change it whenever you like.
- Talk at your normal speed for as long as you need, because there is no session limit.
- Let go. The text lands in about a fifth of a second, punctuated.
Teaching it your frameworks
Apple's framework names and your own module names are exactly what a general speech model gets wrong, because they are not ordinary English and they are capitalised in ways no dictionary expects. Two things fix it. Turn on the developer tools vocabulary pack during setup for the common ground, then use Teach for the rest: select a word that came out wrong, type what you meant, press Teach, and it is heard your way from then on.
Ship the Q3 roadmap before Friday.
The corrections stay on your Mac and accumulate. After a week of normal work the vocabulary matches your project rather than a generic one, and you never sat down to build it.
Why on device matters in an editor
A comment can contain a customer name, an internal endpoint or the shape of an unreleased feature. Zumbo has no server for your voice: no account, no API key, no network request needed to transcribe, and the speech engine ships inside the app. There is nothing to retain, because nothing is received.
Related: dictation for developers, dictating into Terminal, and how Zumbo keeps your voice on your Mac.
Does Xcode have dictation?
Xcode is a normal macOS application, so whatever the system puts into the focused field arrives in it. There is no Xcode specific voice feature to install or configure, and none is needed.
Where does this actually help in Xcode?
Documentation comments, commit messages in the source control navigator, the description you write for a pull request, test names that explain what they test, and the release note you write for the build. Not writing Swift itself.
Will it spell framework names correctly?
Turn on the developer tools vocabulary pack and the everyday names come out right. Apple framework names and your own module names are the ones worth teaching: correct each once and it is heard your way from then on.
Does it work in the console and the terminal pane?
Yes. Zumbo types where the cursor is, so the debug console, a terminal pane and every dialog in Xcode behave the same as the editor.
Is source code uploaded anywhere?
No. The speech engine ships inside the app and runs on your Mac. Nothing you dictate leaves the machine, which matters more in an editor than almost anywhere else.
Free for 3 days, everything unlocked. Then $15 once. macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon.