Vocena

Vocena puts live captions over any sound on your Mac, with a translation shown under each line. Whether it is a lecture, a video call, a film or a conversation in another language, the captions float above your other apps so you can follow along without switching windows. Vocena is also coming to iPhone and iPad, currently as a TestFlight beta.

Around the captions sit several AI features. AI keys can explain a term, summarise what was said or suggest a reply, and you can create your own keys. Polish turns rough dictation into organised writing. The Library saves audio, transcripts and translations, can transcribe recordings offline with speaker labels, and exports to TXT, SRT or M4A. Scenes such as Lectures, Meetings, Watching, Conversations and Dictation preset the audio source and AI keys for each situation.

Vocena gives you a real choice between on-device and cloud processing. On-device options include Apple's speech recognition, the local Qwen3-ASR model, Apple translation and Apple Intelligence on supported devices. Cloud recognition and translation are available for higher accuracy. A Local mode blocks uploads and pauses cloud processing entirely, and Vocena says Library recordings stay on the device.

Live captions with on-device recognition are free. Translation is a one-time purchase, with a launch price of $29.99, while cloud features need a subscription. The Mac app requires macOS 15.5 or later.