How to transcribe a video on your Mac without uploading it
Updated · For Fetchii 1.1 · 2 min read
Short answer
On an Apple Silicon Mac, download the video with Fetchii, right-click it and choose Generate subtitles. Fetchii turns the speech into a timed transcript, saved as an SRT file, entirely on your Mac; only the speech model is downloaded, once.
Right-click the finished download and choose Generate subtitles, or hover over it, click the sparkles button (Intelligence) and choose Generate subtitles.
[Screenshot: Right-click menu on a finished download with Generate subtitles highlighted]
3
Wait for the first run
If the speech model isn't on your Mac yet, Fetchii downloads it first. The first time a model is used, it is prepared on your Mac, which can take a few minutes; later runs are much faster.
4
Open the transcript
Click the Subtitles label on the download (or its sparkles button) and choose Show Subtitle File to show the SRT file in Finder. With the inspector open (View → Show Inspector, ⌘I), it's also listed under Files. It's plain text with timestamps, so any text editor or video player can open it.
[Screenshot: Intelligence popover showing Show Subtitle File and Summarize]
Please note:Transcribe only videos you have the right to keep and use, such as your own recordings or lectures you're allowed to save.
More you can do
Transcribe every new download
Turn on Generate subtitles automatically on this Mac in Settings → Intelligence → Subtitles.
Summarize it
Turn on Summaries in Settings → Intelligence → Summaries & Names, then click Summarize in the same popover for an on-device summary you can copy. Summarize each new video automatically does it for every download.
No. Speech recognition runs on your Mac; the audio and the transcript stay there. Fetchii's optional anonymous usage statistics and crash reports (Settings → Privacy) are not designed to include URLs or video content.
Which Macs can do this?
Macs with Apple Silicon and macOS 14.6 or later. On Intel Macs the Intelligence features are hidden. On Macs with 16 GB of memory or more, Fetchii uses the more accurate speech model by default.
Can I transcribe a video I didn't download with Fetchii?
No. Transcription is available for videos in Fetchii's download list.
What format is the transcript?
SRT: numbered lines with start and end times. You can regenerate it with Regenerate Subtitles… in the popover's … menu.
