How the test went
Download, first launch and setup
The test ran on 9 November 2026. The tester downloaded a small DMG, which he read as 20 MB; no screenshot. The installer window shows the app icon beside an Applications shortcut. The directory lists 18.2 MB for version 2.2.4 (third-party).
The tester likes the logo, a German play on the word Sprich split into “spr” and “ich”.
An account is needed: setup step 1, “Anmelden”, is ticked before the model step, and the tester says registration is required.
Step 2 downloads two models once: Sprich Transcribe v3 (speech recognition, about 480 MB) and Sprich Turbo v3 (text improvement, about 2.8 GB), about 3.3 GB together by the app’s own text. The download runs in the background while the next steps are done. These are download sizes, not runtime memory.
The screens do not name the models underneath. The tester noticed this and wanted to find out.
He changed the dictation key; which key he chose is not recorded. Step 4 shows Fn, while the welcome screen’s illustration shows right Command. Two modes exist: Einrasten (press to start, press to stop; marked Standard) and Gedrückt halten (record while held).
He reached the last step, “Fast geschafft”, while the models were still downloading: speech recognition 72 %, text improvement 12 %. Total download time and setup time are not recorded.
Usage
The first Word tests felt slow and one text seemed to go missing. The tester wrote that a speech tool has to answer within a second or two and that his cloud tool was faster. Then he found his own mistake: in the default toggle mode the key has to be pressed once to start and once to stop. He corrected the notes.
With the key used wrongly, the tester estimates several seconds, sometimes over 10 s, before text appeared. After correct use he found the app instant. Nothing was timed.
The first four English dictations into Word, 17:43 to 17:49, are 7 to 13 words each. One reads “Sprich Ae” in the history where the tester’s notes show “Sprich AI”; what he said and whether he edited the text are not recorded.
German dictation into WhatsApp arrived with greeting, paragraphs and punctuation, and the tester says it sorted the text correctly. One phrase, “die doppelt drücken knüpfen muss”, reads oddly; the intended wording is not recorded.
English dictation into Telegram arrived as three messages with filler words such as “Uh” kept. The setup screen promises correction of punctuation, capitalisation and recognition errors, not fillers.
A French sentence was dictated and its text is in the notes; the tester did not judge accuracy and the spoken sentence is not recorded. A Russian test did not work: the app did not understand the words and the output was garbled. The language setting at that time is not recorded; that it was set to German is an inference.
The History tab kept every dictation with time, target app, text, recording length, word count and saved time, plus a search box and an app filter. At 17:49 the headline said 41 s saved this week and the tile 56 s; at 18:07 (32 transcriptions, 676 words) the headline said 12 min 23 s and the tile 19 m. The app does not explain how “saved” is computed.
Later he switched to hold-to-talk, the mode he is used to, and was impressed again. Not timed.
Settings, extras and the developer’s reply
A popup menu offers Änderung beschreiben, Korrekturlesen, Umformulieren, Freundlich, Sachlich, Kompakt, Zusammenfassung, Hauptpunkte, Liste, Tabelle and Verfassen. The tester wanted to understand how it works and did not use it. Which program provides the menu, Sprich or macOS, is not recorded.
Settings has a Schreibton dropdown, Formal (ticked) or Informell. Only the dropdown was seen; the tester’s “Wow” is about the option, not a tested result.
The recording indicator can be set to Taste, Mikro (selected) or Kein. The tester saw a microphone bubble change from grey to orange; the header shows “Mikro bereit”.
The sprich.ai account page offers a password change and two-factor authentication. The tester was “really impressed” by the latter, but the card shows only an “Aktivieren” link, so it was not switched on.
The Meetings tab offers “Meeting aufnehmen”; its tip says calls give a transcript, summary and tasks and everything stays on the Mac. The tester tried it in a second session (see the Meeting mode chapter).
He looked for a language switch to make English screenshots and found none; the interface is German only.
The built-in “Bug melden” form has Bug, Feedback and Feature tabs and fields for title, description, expected and actual result, frequency and up to 3 attachments of 1 MB each. The “Mitgesendete Daten” section was not opened and whether anything was sent is not recorded. “Transcripts are never sent” is the form’s own line.
The developer replied to the tester in German after the test; the date is not stated. Paraphrased: he is glad the tester now makes his recordings with Sprich; Parakeet understands about 25 European languages, selectable for file transcription; dictation is optimised for German, and English terms inside a German sentence work well; the interface is German only so far, a deliberate choice because the local version is optimised for German. None of this is verified.
Meeting mode, tried on 13 November
On 13 November 2026 the tester recorded a meeting with the Meetings tab. The header of the saved meeting reads “Meeting vom 13. November”, 12:24, Mikrofon, 6 min, 2 Personen, 28 Wortmeldungen (utterances). Which app version he used is not recorded.
He says the meeting function works well and that it lets him record a meeting.
The sound quality in the room was very bad.
Sprich recorded and transcribed it anyway and assigned the speech to two speakers, Person 1 and Person 2. A hint reads “Klicken zum Umbenennen” (click to rename). Each utterance has a speaker and a time stamp (00:00 and 00:14 in the excerpt). The excerpt is English text with some rough phrasing; whether that comes from the speech or from the recognition is not recorded. Accuracy of the text and of the speaker assignment was not scored.
A button “Auswertung erstellen” (create evaluation) opens a dialog with four formats: Zusammenfassung (key statements, decisions, tasks; preselected), Protokoll (by topic, with resolutions), Follow-up-E-Mail (a ready-to-send message to the participants) and Arztbrief (history, findings, assessment, procedure). Which format the tester generated and what came out is not recorded.
The dialog says it runs locally on your Mac and usually takes 20 to 60 seconds (“Läuft lokal auf deinem Mac · meist 20–60 Sekunden”). Nothing was timed and no network traffic was inspected.
The tester finds it really great that this runs locally.
Scope: one 6-minute recording with two people. Longer meetings, system-sound capture, offline operation and the quality of the generated evaluations were not tested or not recorded.
Decision
The notes end with the feedback form and no decision on continued use.
The tester compares the app with his cloud tool, whose server locations he does not know, and says he would not share confidential data there.
From his 30 years in consulting he values writing meeting notes himself. He then recorded a meeting in a room with the app and finds it really great that it runs locally.