What Riff needs
Riff runs on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 27 or later.
Permissions
Riff asks for each permission during setup or the first time it needs it.
| Permission | What Riff uses it for | Without it |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | Dictation, and your side of a meeting | Riff cannot record |
| Accessibility | Putting text into other apps, smart spacing, and edit by voice | Riff copies each dictation to the clipboard |
| System Audio Recording | The other side of a meeting, asked for the first time Riff takes meeting notes | Riff cannot record the other side |
| Calendar, optional | Coming Up, the alert a minute before a meeting, and attendee names | Riff notices calls from the microphone alone |
Writing models
Riff writes with Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, which needs a network connection. When that is not available, it uses Apple’s on-device model, which needs Apple Intelligence turned on in System Settings. Without either, Riff writes Basic notes and cleans up dictation with rules. Written with Private Cloud Compute explains each one.
Optional downloads
Parakeet takes about 630 MB of disk space and Cohere Transcribe about 2.2 GB. Apple Speech downloads the speech model for your language through macOS.
Early access
Riff’s early access builds install through TestFlight. Early access explains how to ask for an invitation.