Changelog

Liquid Glass comes to Aqua

• A new Liquid Glass floating bar brings a translucent finish to Aqua on macOS 26 and later

• The Aqua orb and audio waveform show when Aqua is listening, with a compact design that stays out of your way

More reliable dictation on iPhone

• Fixed a crash when opening Aqua after an incomplete offline model download

• Interrupted model downloads now resume safely, and you can keep dictating online while they finish

• Fixed a keyboard crash when switching between text fields on iOS 27

Get the latest version for iPhone

Faster microphone startup on Windows

• Recent audio improvements, including native Windows audio capture, reduce the delay between pressing your Aqua key and the microphone hearing you

• Microphone startup time has dropped from 298 ms to 122 ms since late August, so you can start speaking sooner

• Aqua also uses less CPU while idle and releases more memory when Deep Context is off

Choose which microphones Aqua can pick

• Blacklist virtual inputs such as BlackHole so Aqua automatically selects another available microphone when it can

• Open the microphone picker in Settings, hover over an input, and click the minus button to blacklist it

• Blacklisted microphones stay in the list. You can still select one yourself or use the plus button to restore it

Dictate with the Action Button

• On a supported iPhone, use the Action Button to start dictation, then press it again to stop

• With the Aqua keyboard open, your words appear in the text field. Otherwise, Aqua copies the transcript so you can paste it

• Open Settings → Action Button in the Aqua app to set it up

Better setup experience

• Setup now checks that your microphone and shortcut work before you start dictating

• Try dictation and hands-free Realtime Mode with guided examples

• The setup guide walks you through your first dictation in another app

Start Aqua from your mouse

• Bind Aqua directly to a middle or side mouse button without a keyboard combination

• Mouse buttons work with Aqua's shortcuts, so you can start dictation, go hands-free, or paste your last transcript without leaving your mouse

• To set one up, open Keybindings in Settings, choose a shortcut, then press your middle button (Mouse 3) or a side button (Mouse 4 or Mouse 5)

Choose how Send It finishes

• You can now choose which key Aqua presses when you end a Realtime dictation with “send it”: Enter, ⌘+Enter on Mac, or Ctrl+Enter

• Want to review your words first? Choose Paste Only to insert your text without submitting it

• Find the new Send Command control in Settings

Send It

• Finish a hands-free Realtime dictation with "send it," and Aqua sends your message without making you reach for Return

• Aqua removes the command from the transcript, inserts your message, and submits it automatically

• Works across apps on macOS and Windows, with natural command variations in English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, and Russian

See Send It in action:

Learn more about Send It

Edit Mode

• Introducing Edit Mode: select text in any app, hold your Aqua key, and say the change you want

• Fix a name or a typo, translate the selection, or clean up numbers and formatting. Aqua rewrites it in place

• Take the tour from Settings to try it on a live example

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements, including:

• Refreshed the desktop app with Aqua's updated design system

• Improved startup and settings sync reliability

• Updated the loading and sign-in screens with the new Aqua orb

Bug Fixes and Improvements, including:

• Fixed the History tab transcript hint flashing on load

• Fixed accidentally dragging the stats card image out of the app

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements, including:

• Bulk-add terms to Custom Dictionary

Business Plan

• SSO for unified sign-in

• Detailed dashboard showing team summary statistics

• Shared team dictionary

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements, including:

• Improved syncing of settings between multiple devices

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Avalon 1.5

• Enabled Avalon 1.5 for desktop users

• Improved transcript formatting with better paragraph breaks

Sign-in with Apple

• Added Apple sign-in across all platforms

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

• Increased speed and reliability

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

• Increased speed and reliability

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

• Increased speed and reliability

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

• Increased speed and reliability

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

• Increased speed and reliability

Fixes and Improvements, including:

• Two critical accessibility permissions bugs

• More configurability around Replacements:

  • Preserve case
  • Strip punctuation

• Fixed international users getting English UI on Windows

• Fixed missing "Paste Last Transcript" hotkey for certain users

• Fixed Floating Bar positioning issue when in fullscreen

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements, including:

• More reliability arounds hotkeys

• Fixes phantom issue of the activation key not working after long periods of idling

• Et cetera

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements, including:

• Improved auto-detect language support

• You can now mute background audio while recording on Windows

• Fixed a bug where left/right arrow keys would conflict with other shortcuts

• All notifications are now translated

• Fixed a paste bug in VS Code and Cursor

• Et cetera

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements, including:

• Improved team billing: you can now create a team and transfer your Pro balance

• You can now switch between monthly and annual billing

• Fixed an issue where the microphone notification would show the wrong mic

• Fixed some missing punctuation for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

• The microphone UI no longer jumps around when recording

• Et cetera

Aqua Wrapped

• See a summary of your year with Aqua

• Open the app and click the banner to view it

Fixes and Improvements

• Improved microphone startup time

• Reduced hallucination rates

• Various bug fixes

Replacements

• Introduces Replacements: shortcut phrases that Aqua automatically replaces with whatever you want

• Replacements are especially great for repeated prompts, emails, and links

• You can read more about them in our User Guide

Improvements for Messaging Apps

• Added a Casual Messaging setting that enforces lowercase in apps like Slack, iMessage, and Discord

• Improved the reliability of Slack @-mentions, allowing you to tag colleagues with your voice

Fixes and Improvements

• Increased reliability of Custom Dictionary for users of the Avalon model

• Improved recognition quality of on-screen names for users with Deep Context enabled

• Better text normalization in Notion, Microsoft Teams, and more

• Drastically reduced number of Connection Errors

File Tagging

• Added the ability to tag files in Cursor and Windsurf when you mention them.

• Go to Settings > File Tagging to enable

• Learn more about it in our user guide

Inline Text Normalization

• Improved the casing and spacing of transcribed text to match the cursor location

User Guide

• Added a User Guide to the website to help you get the most out of Aqua.

• Go to /guide to check it out.

Referral System

• Share your referral link within the app to give your friends a free month of Aqua!

• You also get a $10 credit when they sign up

Voice Log

• Added a graph of activity over time to the stats card

Fixes and Improvements

• Made Paste Last Transcript shortcut customizable

• Added keyboard shortcut to paste last transcript (Cmd+Ctrl+V on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+RightArrow on Windows)

• Improvements to responsiveness of floating bar

• Beginnings of a UI refresh (more to come!)

Fixes and Improvements

• Added Stats summary to home view of app

• Simplified language picker to make switching between languages easier

• Improvements to Websocket reliability

Stats Card

• Introduces a new stats card to the dashboard, showing time saved, WPM, and more.

• Share on social media and send it to us to get a free month of Aqua

Student Discount

• Students receive 70% off annual plans when signing up with a .edu email.

Speed Improvements

• Major speed improvements to both Avalon and our underlying Large Language Models.

Introducing Avalon

• Adds support for Avalon, Aqua's SotA transcription model built for our users. Read more about it here.

Mute Background Audio [macOS]

• Aqua will now mute background audio while in use. Can be disabled in the settings.

Avoid Clipboard History

• If enabled, Aqua will not write to clipboard history.

• If disabled, your last transcript will be written to your clipboard and can be pasted with Cmd/Ctrl+V.

Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed a rare Windows bug that would result in a failure to paste.

• Fixed an issue where a half-width space would be prepended to Japanese dictations.

• Improved connection reliability.

Setting Sync

• Your Dictionary, Custom Instructions, Language and Realtime mode now sync across your devices. Can be disabled in the settings.

Referrals

• The referrals page has a new design, making it easier to track your invites and rewards. All your existing credits are right where you left them.

Fixes and Improvements

• Updated user interface translations to reflect new features.

• Bug fixes and minor performance improvements.

Enhanced History Tab

• Added the ability to rerun transcription from the History tab

• Added audio playback and download buttons to the History tab

This is a "Snow Leopard" release focused on making the basics faster and more reliable.

Startup & Activation

• Faster startup, especially on spotty connections

• Predictive microphone management increases consistency and reduces cases of missing the first or last word

• Better performance when your internet connection is slow

Fixes and Improvements

• Reduced overall resource usage

• Fixed a rare bug that could cause audio resources to linger in memory longer than necessary

• Improved caching of client components for better performance

• Added more server locations for lower latency

• Various bug fixes and performance optimizations

Team Plan

Introducing Aqua for Teams! The Team Plan offers centralized billing, data controls, and more. Check it out here.

Language Auto-Detect

• Select "Auto-Detect" in the Language Picker to seamlessly use Aqua across different languages

• (Note: Language Auto-Detect is not available while in Realtime mode)

Undo AI Edit

• Added an option to get the Base Transcript from the History tab

• Simply click "Undo" from inside History to get the original transcript back

Keybinding Flexibility

• Increased the range of valid keybindings (can include up to 5 keys)

• Added ability to have multiple keybindings for the same action

• Added ability to reassign the Activate Hands-Free keybinding

Fixes and Improvements

• Fixes a rare bug where the activation key state can become inverted

• Stops counting onboarding sessions against free trial (oops)

• Reliability improvements to the core pipeline

Fixes and Improvements

• Added the language picker to the context menu for easy access (language auto-detection coming soon!)

• Added support for function keys F13-F19

This release includes the initial setup for our new changelog!

Feedback

You can thumbs up or thumbs down responses in the History tab. If our response wasn't so great, you can add a note. If you want to help iron out the kinks, we would appreciate it, but it's optional.

Annual Plan

• Added the annual pro plan.

• Added pricing to the homepage (it's not a secret!)

Clipboard Preservation

• The contents of your clipboard are now restored after you paste text.

Web Sandbox

You can test out Aqua in your browser before you install it. Try it out here.

It's only in English for now, and there were some speed optimizations that couldn't be ported to the browser, so you should expect slightly higher latency and slightly reduced accuracy compared to what you would get in desktop Aqua.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where words would be cut off at the end of a sentence.

• Improved client download and update speed.

• Reduced startup latency for those outside of the US.