MindNotes — Private Voice Journal for the Mac Menu Bar

MindNotes puts a private voice journal behind a speech bubble in the Mac menu bar. One click opens it, Record starts listening, and the words appear on screen as they are spoken. Save turns them into a dated entry that stays on the Mac.

Just say it

Press Record and talk. The Mac's own speech recognition writes the words as they come, with punctuation, and a live waveform and timer show that it is listening.

Or type it

When speaking is not the moment, Type opens a plain text box instead. Command-Return saves the entry.

Every day, in order

Entries are grouped by day, newest first, with the time and the length of each recording. Search finds any word, a click shows the whole entry with Copy and Delete, and a streak counts the days in a row.

A quick note, one right-click

Right-click the menu bar icon to start recording without opening anything. A timer shows beside the icon, and a second right-click saves the note.

Yours alone

Entries are stored only on the Mac, and audio is never saved, only the text. An optional Touch ID lock hides the journal until it is unlocked, and every entry can be exported to Markdown.

How it works

• Left-click the speech bubble icon opens the panel. Press Record and talk, and the words appear as they are spoken; press Save to keep the entry or Discard to throw it away. Press Type to write one instead, where Command-Return saves it.
• Right-click the icon, or Control-click it, to start a quick voice note without opening the panel. A timer sits beside the icon while it records, and a second right-click saves it.
• The timeline below groups entries by day. Search finds any word, and clicking an entry opens it with Copy and Delete.
• The options menu, the circled dots at the top right, holds Require Touch ID, Open at Login and Export Entries.

Opening it the first time

MindNotes is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click.

Does it send my voice anywhere?

MindNotes asks macOS to transcribe on the Mac itself wherever the language supports it. The app has no account, no analytics and no server of its own.

Which languages does it understand?

It uses the language set for dictation on the Mac, so any language macOS can transcribe works.

What permissions does it need?

Microphone and speech recognition, which macOS asks for the first time Record is pressed. If either is turned off, the panel links straight to the right page in System Settings.

Which Macs does it run on?

Any Mac with Apple silicon or Intel running macOS 13 Ventura or later.