Permissions

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At a glance

None of these involve the internet. Granting a permission lets TongueType do something on your Mac, not send something off it.

Microphone

The obvious one. TongueType captures audio only while you’re holding the hotkey (or between taps with Double-tap to latch), plus the audio track of any file you drop into  Transcribe audio/video file…. There is no wake word and no always-on listening. When you’re not recording, the microphone is closed.

Granting it. Step 2 of the setup wizard shows the standard macOS prompt. If you skipped it, the first hotkey press asks instead. Later, it lives under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.

A deliberate detail. TongueType doesn’t touch the microphone hardware, or even list your audio devices, until permission is granted. On recent versions of macOS, an app that opens an input device too early can get silently marked as denied without ever showing a prompt. TongueType waits so that doesn’t happen. If your copy somehow ends up in that state anyway, the reset command at the bottom of this page fixes it.

Without it. The menu shows a red “Microphone access needed” row, pressing the hotkey shows “Microphone access denied” and opens System Settings, and the wizard returns at the next launch. File transcription keeps working.

Input Monitoring

Normally macOS delivers keystrokes only to the app in front. Input Monitoring lets TongueType notice your hotkey while you’re working in Mail, VS Code, Safari, or anything else. That’s the whole use: it watches for the one key you chose and ignores everything else. Nothing is logged or stored.

Granting it. Step 3 of the wizard opens System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring. Toggle TongueType on. macOS then quits and relaunches the app, which looks alarming the first time but is standard behavior for this permission. TongueType is back in a second or two and the wizard picks up where it left off.

Without it. The hotkey does nothing, silently; macOS gives apps no signal when this permission is missing or revoked. TongueType checks on its own shortly after launch and every time you open the menu, and shows a red “Input Monitoring needed” row when it’s gone. You can still transcribe audio and video files from the menu bar in the meantime, and the wizard returns at the next launch.

Accessibility (optional)

This one lets TongueType deliver text into the focused app without you pressing ⌘V, and read the text around your cursor so Smart insertion can match capitalization and spacing. It’s what makes TongueType work as an alternate input method for people who have difficulty typing on a keyboard, which is why we ask. If you type comfortably, you may not need it.

It’s labelled Optional for a reason. Skip it and every feature still works. The transcript lands on the clipboard and the overlay reads “Copied · press ⌘V to paste.”

What it reads. Only the focused text field, only at the moment of insertion, and never a password field. TongueType detects secure fields and leaves them alone.

Granting it. Step 4 of the wizard, or later under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. If the toggle is on but insertion still falls back to the clipboard, flip it off and on again; macOS occasionally needs the nudge.

Revoking it. TongueType notices and falls back to the clipboard automatically. The wizard does not re-open for this one, since nothing is gated on it.

What TongueType doesn’t ask for

No Screen Recording, Full Disk Access, Camera, Contacts, Calendar, Location, or Automation. Files you drop into the transcribe dialog are read the way any app reads a file you hand it, with no extra permission. TongueType also doesn’t add itself to your login items unless you turn on Automatically start at login.

The only times TongueType uses the network at all: downloading the Whisper model once during setup, checking for updates when you choose  Check for Updates… or leave Automatically check for updates on, and contacting our payment provider when you unlock or deactivate Pro. Your audio is never part of any of it. The privacy policy spells out the rest.

Revoking a permission later

Everything is reversible from System Settings → Privacy & Security. Here’s what happens when you do:

• Microphone off: a red row appears in the menu, the hotkey shows “Microphone access denied,” and the wizard returns next launch. Re-granting takes effect immediately.
• Input Monitoring off: the hotkey goes silent, a red row appears in the menu, and the wizard returns next launch. Re-granting relaunches the app.
• Accessibility off: transcripts go to the clipboard with a ⌘V hint. Nothing else changes.

Resetting a permission from scratch

If a permission is stuck, say TongueType isn’t listed in a pane where it should be, you can make macOS forget its decision. Quit TongueType, open Terminal, and run whichever line applies:

tccutil reset Microphone net.abeautifulsite.TongueType
tccutil reset ListenEvent net.abeautifulsite.TongueType
tccutil reset Accessibility net.abeautifulsite.TongueType

ListenEvent is macOS’s internal name for Input Monitoring. Relaunch TongueType afterwards and it asks again as if for the first time.

Where to next

• Getting started: the wizard that walks you through granting all three.
• Troubleshooting: symptom-by-symptom fixes when something isn’t working.
• Privacy policy: what we collect, which is nothing.