WisprCheap for Android

Push-to-talk voice dictation for any Android app, paying only for the APIs you use. A small bubble appears when you type in a text field. You talk, and the text is transcribed, cleaned up by an LLM and inserted at the cursor.

This is the Android port of the wisprcheap desktop app. It uses the same providers, prompts, prices and history format.

Features

• Hold the bubble to talk, release to insert. Tap it to record hands-free, with Cancel / Send.
• Speech-to-text with ElevenLabs Scribe (default) or OpenAI. Your dictionary is sent as keyterms or as a prompt.
• LLM cleanup: removes filler words and false starts and fixes punctuation. It works with any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (OpenAI, Groq, OpenRouter, Ollama…).
• Command mode: slide up while holding (or tap ✨) and speak an instruction ("make it more formal", "translate to German"). It is applied to the selected text, or writes new text at the cursor.
• Translation mode: language pairs such as French → English, switched from the app or a Quick Settings tile.
• Text insertion works like a keyboard, without replacing yours and without touching the clipboard. There are fallbacks for unusual apps.
• History, monthly cost and word stats, and a log, all kept on the phone. The history can be exported in the desktop history.jsonl format.
• Optional sync with your computers and other phones through your own wisprcheap sync server (see below).
• Haptic feedback, a draggable bubble that follows the keyboard, excluded apps, and a dark/light Material You theme.

Typical cost: about $0.35 per 10,000 dictated words with the defaults (Scribe v2 + gpt-6-luna).

Install

Requires Android 13 or newer.

1. Download WisprCheap-x.y.z.apk from the latest release and open it. Allow your browser or file manager to install apps if Android asks.
2. Open WisprCheap and follow the Finish setup card:
   • allow the microphone and notifications;
   • turn on the accessibility service. In the list, open "WisprCheap dictation bubble" (under Downloaded apps). If the switch is greyed out ("Restricted setting"), go to App info → ⋮ → Allow restricted settings and try again;
   • add your ElevenLabs and/or OpenAI API keys (Settings → API keys, with a Test button).
3. Tap a text field in any app, hold the bubble, and talk.

Updates install over the previous version: every release is signed with the same key.

Gestures

You do	It does
Hold the bubble still (0.2 s), talk, release	Transcribes, cleans up and inserts the text
Tap the bubble	Hands-free recording with a Cancel / ✨ Command / Send toolbar
Slide up while holding	The recording becomes a command on the selected text
Slide away while holding	Cancels
Drag the bubble	Moves it (it keeps its distance above the keyboard)

Sync (optional)

If you run a wisprcheap sync server, the phone can share its settings with the desktop app and your other phones: speech-to-text, cleanup, command and translation settings, the API keys, the dictionary, translation pairs and custom prices. The history can be uploaded too, so Home can show this month for all your devices.

1. On the server's web page, click Connect a device.
2. Scan the QR code with the phone's camera (it opens WisprCheap), or go to Settings → Sync and type the server address and the 8-character code.
3. The first device chooses a sync passphrase; the next ones ask for it.

Everything is end-to-end encrypted with that passphrase before it leaves the phone: the server only reads the history statistics (dates, durations, models, word counts and costs), never your text or keys. The bubble, recording, text insertion and history options stay per phone. The phone syncs when you open the app, a few seconds after you change a setting or dictate, and from Sync now; there is no background schedule.

Privacy

• The accessibility service only looks at the focused text field: its type, and the text around the cursor or the selection when you dictate. It is needed to show the bubble, record from other apps and insert text.
• Audio goes only to the speech-to-text service you chose, and text only to the LLM endpoints you configured. There are no analytics. With sync on, the encrypted profile and history also go to your own sync server.
• API keys (and the sync token and key) are encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore. Settings, history and logs stay in the app's private storage and are excluded from backups.

Build from source

Requirements: JDK 17+ and the Android SDK (platform 37, build-tools 36). Android Studio provides both.

./gradlew :core:test :app:assembleDebug    # tests + debug APK (installs as "WisprCheap debug", next to the release)
./gradlew :app:assembleRelease             # release APK (minified)

Release builds are signed when a key is configured, either through a keystore.properties file at the repository root (not committed):

storeFile=/absolute/path/to/release.jks
storePassword=...
keyAlias=...
keyPassword=...

or through the SIGNING_KEYSTORE, SIGNING_STORE_PASSWORD, SIGNING_KEY_ALIAS and SIGNING_KEY_PASSWORD environment variables. The GitHub workflow builds and tests every push. For a v* tag matching wisprcheap.versionName in gradle.properties, it also publishes a signed release.

• The :core module holds the platform-neutral logic: API clients, prompts, pricing, history, gestures and the processing pipeline, with JVM unit tests.
• The :app module holds the Android parts.
• PLAN.md is the full design document.

License

MIT