Permissions Explained
Microphone
What it covers: capturing the audio while you hold the key.
Without it there is no recording at all. This is the permission most people expect.
Audio captured under this permission is transcribed on your Mac and is not uploaded. See Privacy on Device.
Accessibility
What it covers: inserting the finished transcript into the text field of another application.
This is what makes the text appear in your editor rather than in a Phantom Voice window. macOS treats writing into another app's UI as a privileged action, which is exactly why it is gated.
Input Monitoring
What it covers: noticing that you are holding the push-to-talk key while another app has focus.
A hotkey that only worked while Phantom Voice was frontmost would defeat the purpose. Input Monitoring is what lets the fn key mean something while you are inside your terminal.
Keep the app in Applications#
macOS binds these grants to the application's location on disk. Move Phantom Voice out of your Applications folder and macOS treats it as a different app: the permissions stop applying and the prompts return.
The prompt should appear once#
Earlier versions reopened System Settings to the Microphone pane on every launch, even after permission had been granted. That was a bug and it was fixed in 1.1.0. Current builds ask once, the first time, and never open System Settings unless you ask them to. See Release Notes.
If you are still seeing a repeat prompt, you are on an older build. Update from the downloads page.
Next#
- Your First Dictation — put the permissions to work
- Privacy on Device — what the microphone permission does and does not allow
- Back to the documentation home