Google AI Edge Eloquent is a free dictation app from Google: it transcribes your speech on-device, fully offline, and strips out filler words, repetitions and mid-sentence corrections to deliver clean, ready-to-send text. No subscription, no ads, no usage caps. It arrived quietly on iPhone before reaching the Mac, and for now the listing is US-only, with English as the sole supported language. The European release is still pending regulatory approval.
The workflow takes three gestures: you tap record, you speak naturally, and the transcript appears live before cleaning itself up in front of you. Where Apple's built-in dictation writes down every word verbatim, hesitations included, Eloquent reconstructs the sentence you meant to say. Under the hood, speech recognition runs locally on Gemma models, Google's family of lightweight open-weight models.
A personal dictionary takes your proper nouns and jargon, with an optional import from Gmail. For deeper polishing, a cloud mode calls on Gemini models, and it switches off in the settings (the offline toggle is the first thing you see, which says a lot about the defaults). Four transformations then reshape the text:
The app requires iOS 16 or later and runs fine on older iPhones, with the speech model downloaded on first launch. Distribution is limited to the US App Store, and the rollout to the EEA, the UK and Switzerland is on hold until regulators sign off.
The pleasant surprise sits on desktop: the macOS version ships with the Gemma 4 12B model and runs entirely locally. A customizable hotkey triggers dictation inside any application on your Mac, which puts it in the same league as the specialist tools on the market.
| Platform | Status | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone and iPad | Available (US App Store) | iOS 16 minimum, roughly 67 MB app |
| macOS | Available | Hotkey dictation in any app, local processing |
| Android | In development | System keyboard behavior announced, no date |
| EU/EEA | Pending | Launch waiting on regulatory approval |
Total gratuity is the argument shaking up the AI dictation market. Comparable services such as Wispr Flow or superwhisper typically charge subscriptions, often in the range of $15 to $30 a month, with a cloud dependency built in. Eloquent delivers the same intelligent cleanup, locally, for nothing, a rare level of polish among free AI tools.
Google openly treats the app as a showcase: it demonstrates to the general public what the AI Edge on-device stack can do without a server. If you write a lot in English, the math takes about two seconds.
Yes, completely. There is no subscription, no in-app purchase, no advertising and no usage cap. The optional cloud mode, which calls on Gemini models for finer text cleanup, is free as well. Google positions the app as a public showcase for its on-device AI stack, which explains the pricing.
In local mode, yes: audio is processed on the device and your transcription history is stored locally, where you can review or delete it at any time. Cloud mode, which you can switch off in settings, sends text to Google's servers for richer polishing. The embedded model does not learn from your dictations.
Apple Dictation transcribes verbatim, filler words and half-finished thoughts included, with no text reshaping. Eloquent infers the sentence you intended, removes the ums and self-corrections, adds punctuation and can rewrite the result in four styles. For a quick text message either works; for anything you plan to send or publish, the gap is real.
An Android version is in development, with system-keyboard behavior announced but no release date. Nothing has been announced for Windows. On iPhone, the app remains standalone: you dictate inside it, then paste the text wherever you want, since there is no iOS keyboard extension yet.
Verdict: A rambling voice note that lands as a clean paragraph: that is the daily payoff. English speakers on iPhone or Mac get a no-cost stand-in for subscription dictation apps, and anyone in Europe can keep it bookmarked for the day regulators wave it through.
