Google AI Edge Eloquent is a free voice dictation app from Google that turns messy spoken thoughts into clean, edited text. It is not a plain speech-to-text tool. It strips out the "ums," the "uhs," and the mid-sentence corrections, then rewrites what you said into something you can paste straight into an email or doc. The whole pipeline runs on-device using Google's Gemma models, so audio and transcripts never leave the machine on the core features.
The app's own tagline: "Speak naturally, express effectively. No cap." It is part of the broader Google AI Edge stack for running Google models locally.
The official product page and downloads:
The macOS app downloads directly from Google as a .dmg, not through the Mac App Store.
What it does
You speak, it cleans. The model captures intended meaning rather than literal words, so filler, false starts, and "I mean, the other thing" corrections get edited out. Output lands on the clipboard ready to paste.
Concrete example from Google's page. Raw input:
Um can we push the project review with uh Surreal to next Tuesday? Actually let's make it Wednesday as he might still be traveling. And uh also ask Amy to send over the latest uh feedback dock. I mean the user feedback doc.
Polished output keeps Wednesday, drops the filler, fixes "feedback dock" to "user feedback doc," and corrects misheard names against your vocabulary list.
Core capabilities:
- Filler and self-correction removal turns stumbles into flushed prose.
- Multiple output styles rewrite the same dictation into different tones.
- Voice Edit lets you dictate a command to transform existing text in your workflow (e.g. "make this shorter," "turn this into bullets"). This feature leans on Gemma's reasoning.
- Personal vocabulary dictionary learns your unique words so names and jargon transcribe correctly. With permission, it can optionally read workspace data like Gmail to build that list.
- File transcription of audio and video, run locally.
- Cross-app dictation on Mac via a customizable hotkey, usable inside any application.
How it works
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Models | Open-weight on-device models based on Google's Gemma architecture |
| Voice Edit engine | Gemma 4 12B for the reasoning-heavy editing commands |
| Processing | Core features run 100% on-device; some advanced/optional features use cloud |
| Privacy | Audio and transcripts stay local on the core path; nothing uploaded for offline use |
| Runtime | Part of the Google AI Edge stack (LiteRT / on-device inference); exact runtime not published for Eloquent |
The macOS desktop build runs the entire feature set on-device for a fully offline experience. The iOS build keeps machine learning local too, with optional cloud-only advanced features.
Platforms and availability
| macOS | Direct .dmg download from Google, runs fully offline |
| iOS / iPadOS | 16.0+, free on the App Store |
| visionOS | 1.0+ (Apple Vision) |
| Price | Free, no subscription |
| Developer | Google LLC |
| Languages | English only at launch; multilingual in progress |
| Regions | Most regions, English builds |
Google says it is evaluating more platforms, including desktop workflows for dictating docs, code, and prompting AI agents. Google sign-in is optional and only used to build the vocabulary dictionary.
Where it fits in Google AI Edge
Eloquent is one of two consumer apps Google shipped to showcase Gemma 4 12B running locally. The other is the AI Edge Gallery, which targets coding and on-device data analysis. Both came out of the June 2026 push to bring a 12B model onto laptops for local, agentic workflows. Google claims Gemma 4 12B brings "superior instruction following, stricter scope adherence, and a 60%+ jump in overall quality" over prior models.
My take
The interesting part is not the dictation, it is that a 12B model now runs editing-grade rewrites on a laptop with zero server round-trip. For anyone handling confidential conversations (sales calls, deal notes, legal), an offline dictation tool that never ships audio to a cloud is the right default. The English-only limit is the obvious gap for me given EN/FR/DE work. Worth keeping on the Mac as a hotkey-driven scratchpad, especially the Voice Edit angle for reshaping text in place. Free and no subscription removes any reason not to try it.