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iPhone · build from source

private voice typing,
on your iPhone.

VocaPhone currently requires iOS 17 or newer, a Mac with Xcode, an Apple signing team, and a physical iPhone. There is no App Store or TestFlight build yet.

the short path

install, choose a model, dictate.

The gateway is optional. Choose and download an on-device model during setup if you want speech-to-text to stay entirely on the iPhone.

  1. 01

    Get the source

    Clone the repository with Git LFS so the native model runtimes are present.

    git lfs install
git clone https://github.com/VocaHQ/vocaphone.git
cd vocaphone
git lfs pull
  2. 02

    Prepare Apple signing

    Open ios/VocaPhone.xcodeproj, choose your Apple development team, and configure matching App Group capabilities for the app, keyboard, and Live Activity targets. If the VocaHQ identifiers are unavailable to your team, replace them consistently in the project configuration and entitlements first.

  3. 03

    Install on a physical iPhone

    Connect the iPhone, select it as the run destination, build VocaPhoneApp, open the installed app, and grant microphone access.

  4. 04

    Choose on-device speech-to-text

    In VocaPhone setup, choose an on-device model, download it, and wait for its integrity check to finish. No gateway address or token is needed for this mode.

  5. 05

    Enable the keyboard

    Open Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards, add VocaPhone, and enable Full Access so the keyboard and containing app can share the current dictation state.

  6. 06

    Try a real text field

    Open Notes, select the VocaPhone keyboard, dictate, finish the recording, and return to insert the transcript. iOS does not permit keyboard extensions to access the microphone, so the companion app owns recording while the model still runs on the iPhone.

Need the complete developer and physical-device details?

read the verified device checklist read the build documentation