What you'll do
- Confirm your Mac meets the requirements (Apple Silicon, macOS 14+).
- Download the signed .dmg from voxstr.com.
- Drag Voxstr.app into your Applications folder.
- Launch it once and let macOS verify the developer signature.
- Move on to granting permissions.
Requirements
Voxstr is built for modern Apple Silicon Macs. Before you download, confirm:
- Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4, or later). Voxstr uses the Apple Neural Engine for transcription and Metal/Apple GPU for the cleanup model. Intel Macs are not supported.
- macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
- About 5 GB of free disk space for the app plus the models that download on first run. The app itself is small; the models account for most of the footprint.
- A working internet connection for the initial download (the app, then the models). Voxstr runs fully offline after that.
Download the .dmg
Grab the latest release from the download page. The file is named Voxstr-x.y.z.dmg (the version number changes with each release). It's signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, which means macOS will recognize it as a trusted app the first time you launch it.
Drag to Applications
Double-click the downloaded Voxstr-x.y.z.dmg to mount it. A Finder window opens showing the Voxstr app icon next to a shortcut to the Applications folder.
Drag Voxstr.app onto the Applications shortcut. Wait for the copy to finish, then eject the disk image (right-click the mounted volume on the desktop and choose Eject).
That's the install. The app is now in /Applications/Voxstr.app.
First launch and Gatekeeper
Open your Applications folder and double-click Voxstr. The first launch is the only one where macOS does extra verification.
You'll see a Gatekeeper dialog that says something like:
"Voxstr" is an app downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?
The dialog will identify the developer (Eluketronic LLC) because the app is notarized. Click Open. Voxstr launches as a menu bar app, so you won't see a Dock icon — look in the top-right of your screen for the Voxstr menu bar item.
After this first launch, macOS remembers your choice and won't prompt again. Voxstr next walks you through granting Accessibility, Microphone, and Input Monitoring permissions and then downloading the local models.
Auto-updates
Voxstr ships with Sparkle, the standard auto-update framework for Mac apps. New versions land automatically: when an update is available, Voxstr downloads it in the background and prompts you to relaunch. You don't need to come back to voxstr.com or redownload the .dmg manually.
You can pause updates or check for them on demand from the menu bar item.
If something goes wrong
"App is damaged and can't be opened"
This usually means the .dmg didn't finish downloading, or your browser truncated the file. Move the existing copy to the Trash, redownload from voxstr.com/download, and try again. Don't drag a partial copy of Voxstr into Applications — replace it.
"Cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified"
This shouldn't happen with a notarized build, but if it does — for example, you downloaded a build from a non-standard source — you can override Gatekeeper once: right-click (or Control-click) Voxstr.app in Applications and choose Open. macOS will show the same dialog with an explicit Open button. After that, normal launches work as expected.
The menu bar icon doesn't appear after launch
Voxstr is a menu bar-only app (no Dock icon). If you don't see the icon after a few seconds, your menu bar might be full and macOS hid it behind the overflow chevron. Hold Cmd, click and drag the icons to rearrange them, or use a tool like iStat Menus or Bartender to manage menu bar overflow.
Voxstr was working but now won't launch
Force-quit any running Voxstr process (Activity Monitor, search "Voxstr", quit). Then launch the app fresh. If that doesn't help, delete /Applications/Voxstr.app, redownload the latest .dmg, and reinstall — your settings, vocabulary, and history live in ~/Library/Application Support/Voxstr/ and survive a reinstall.