System-wide, privacy-first dictation
Keep Viska in the background while you write in email, chat, documents or code. Press a global hotkey, speak naturally, and Viska transcribes locally and inserts the finished text at your cursor.
Viska 0.5.60 delivers background dictation only to its captured external target and adds a session-only list of recent transcription segments.
Viska app download
Viska is designed and tested first for Kubuntu/KDE Plasma. The same local-first app is now also available as a macOS Apple Silicon preview. A Windows preview remains intentionally unpublished until hands-on testing is complete.
Linux · Primary
For Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Debian-family systems. Includes verified KDE Plasma clipboard synchronization, model preloading and an optional guided NVIDIA accelerator with larger CT2 models—without changing your GPU driver.
Download .deb Permanent link: viska-latest.deb
e8e5097982879f4b98ef6de9e1b635c2d883c68073e0f39a426a080f88c3d964macOS · Apple Silicon preview
For Apple Silicon Macs. Double-press left Command to dictate from any app, then let Viska insert the finished text at the cursor. Input Monitoring enables the hotkey and Accessibility enables automatic insertion. This unsigned preview may require Control-click → Open on first launch.
Install FFmpeg with brew install ffmpeg to import audio files and export OGG.
7ece46d95a10035fb337578fc1a04ae6bb74b96ccc7d7715963cba72505aaf7cWindows · In development
A Windows installer is not published yet. It will be added here after a native build and verification, not as an untested placeholder.
Viska family
Dictate with local Whisper models, hotkeys and optional cloud engines. Linux/KDE Plasma stays the primary experience.
Open downloads
Proofread Thunderbird drafts before you send them, locally through Ollama or through OpenRouter with your own key.
Open Viska Brev pageHow it works
Stay in the email, chat, document or prompt where you want the words to appear.
Start and stop dictation without opening or switching to the Viska window.
Viska transcribes, optionally proofreads, and inserts the finished text at your cursor. If desktop integration is unavailable, the text is safely copied to the clipboard instead.
Viska Brev
Viska Brev is a Thunderbird 128+ extension for Swedish and English email drafts. It keeps the same local-first philosophy as Viska: use Ollama on your computer, or connect OpenRouter only when you choose cloud proofreading.
Thunderbird extension
Thunderbird allows installing unsigned extensions from a local file. Download the XPI, verify it against SHA256SUMS if needed, and install it from Thunderbird's Add-ons and Themes screen.
465bb31ca3fe758d728dabf757d788d8b53e9aad888e0b2a7127d46a9f92e310Viska Brev setup
Install the XPI from Thunderbird, then choose whether proofreading runs locally through Ollama or through OpenRouter with your own API key.
1. Download viska-brev-latest.xpi
2. Thunderbird -> Tools -> Add-ons and Themes
3. Gear menu -> Install Add-on From File
4. Local AI: ollama pull gemma3
5. Cloud AI: add your OpenRouter API keyInstall
Use the checksum before installing. Package installation can pull Python dependencies from PyPI during setup.
wget https://getviska.app/downloads/viska_0.5.60_all.deb
sha256sum viska_0.5.60_all.deb
sudo apt install ./viska_0.5.60_all.debWhat it does
Leave Viska in the background and dictate directly into other applications with global hotkeys and automatic text insertion.
Run speech-to-text on your machine with curated Whisper models, including Swedish-friendly options, and save the latest recording as a WAV file when you need the audio.
Built around portal hotkeys, Linux text-insertion backends and a visible clipboard fallback, so a missing desktop capability never silently loses your words.
Choose Off, private local proofreading through Ollama, or an explicitly selected cloud provider before Viska inserts the finished text.
On Debian-family Linux, Viska verifies CTranslate2/CUDA and guides you through a private faster-whisper runtime. GPU-ready choices now include Swedish KB-Whisper Medium and Large plus multilingual Whisper Large V3 and the faster Large V3 Turbo. Green GPU · CT2 badges identify the accelerated format; your distribution remains responsible for the NVIDIA driver.
Use providers like Deepgram, OpenAI, OpenRouter, xAI, Gemini and Mistral while keeping Viska's desktop hotkeys and UI.
Audio stays local unless you explicitly choose a cloud provider. No telemetry is collected.
Complementary tools
Viska turns your speech into text. Viska Brev proofreads and polishes your writing. Use the two applications together — in parallel — for a complete local-first workflow on Linux. A future bridge will connect them even tighter via Viska’s D-Bus API.
Compatibility
Changelog
Routes each background dictation exactly once to its captured external target, leaves the Viska editor unchanged and adds a session-only list of recent transcription segments.
Makes double-pressing the left Command/Meta key start or stop dictation on macOS, with Command-Shift-D retained as a fallback. Completed dictation continues to copy to the clipboard by default.
Publishes a smaller Apple Silicon macOS preview bundle with built-in silence-detection fallback.
Introduces the first macOS preview, a native global-hotkey backend and a verified Flatpak packaging route.
Improves long local Whisper transcription with bounded overlapping chunks and useful performance logging.
Fixes audio-file import by opening KDE's native kdialog picker first (with fallbacks).
Uses the Linux desktop FileChooser portal so KDE Plasma owns the audio import picker.
Moves audio-file import to native chooser while keeping themed picker for other tasks.
Improves model download progress with measured MB and stable scrolling.
FAQ
No. Viska is still a fast-moving test build. Expect field-test fixes and frequent releases.
On modern KDE Plasma it should work through the XDG GlobalShortcuts portal. Other desktops may need fallbacks.
It is the fastest path for early testing. A signed APT repository is the better long-term distribution path.
Viska Brev is not on addons.thunderbird.net yet. Thunderbird can install the self-hosted XPI from a local file.