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AI Q&A Voice Assistant

Ask questions with "Hey Yapper" and get instant AI answers

The AI Q&A Voice Assistant lets you ask questions by voice and get instant answers in a floating panel — just say “Hey Yapper” followed by your question.

How It Works

  1. Press the recording shortcut (⌥ Space)
  2. Say “Hey Yapper” followed by your question
  3. Stop recording (press shortcut again or release keys)
  4. Get your answer — displayed in a floating Markdown panel

The answer streams in live, rendered with full Markdown formatting — headings, lists, code blocks, and more.

Example Questions

  • “Hey Yapper, what’s the capital of France?”
  • “Hey Yapper, explain the difference between TCP and UDP”
  • “Hey Yapper, write a Python function to reverse a string”
  • “Hey Yapper, what are the macOS keyboard shortcuts for screenshots?”
  • “Hey Yapper, summarize the key points of agile methodology”

Requirements

  • AI provider configured — Set up in Settings → AI with an API key
  • Internet connection — Required to reach your AI provider

No additional permissions are needed beyond the standard Microphone and Accessibility access.

Wake Phrase Detection

Yapper listens for “Hey Yapper” (or close variations) at the start of your transcription. The detection is fuzzy — it accounts for common speech-to-text misrecognitions like:

  • “Hey Yapper” / “Hey yapper”
  • “Hey Upper” / “Hey Rapper”
  • “Hay Yapper” / “A Yapper”
  • And many more variations

You don’t need to pronounce it perfectly. If your transcription starts with something close to “Hey Yapper,” the Q&A mode activates.

The Q&A Panel

When Q&A mode activates, the overlay expands to show an answer card:

ColorIconMeaning
RedWaveformRecording your question
BlueSpinnerProcessing speech to text
PurpleSparkleAI is generating the answer
GreenCheckmarkAnswer complete

The answer appears in a floating card with:

  • Full Markdown rendering — formatted text, code blocks, lists, tables
  • Auto-scrolling — follows the streaming response as it arrives
  • Stays visible until you dismiss it or start a new recording

Dismissing the Answer

The Q&A answer panel disappears when you:

  • Start a new recording
  • Press Escape
  • Wait for the auto-dismiss timeout

The answer is not typed into any application — it’s displayed in the floating panel only. This means Q&A mode won’t interfere with your current text field.

How Yapper Decides the Mode

When you stop recording, Yapper checks your transcription in this order:

  1. “Hey Yapper” detected? → AI Q&A mode (answer displayed in panel)
  2. Text selected in the active app? → AI Transform mode (rewrite selected text)
  3. Neither? → Normal dictation (type text into active field)

This means you can always fall back to normal dictation — just don’t start with “Hey Yapper” and don’t have text selected.

Tips

Ask Clear Questions

The AI responds better to clear, specific questions:

  • Instead of “Hey Yapper, code” → “Hey Yapper, write a bash script to find large files”
  • Instead of “Hey Yapper, help” → “Hey Yapper, how do I undo a git commit?”

Choose the Right Model

  • Quality models (Claude Sonnet, GPT-5 Mini, Gemini Pro) give more detailed, nuanced answers
  • Fast models (Claude Haiku, GPT-5 Nano, Gemini Flash) respond faster for simple questions

Code Questions

The Q&A panel renders code blocks with syntax highlighting, making it great for programming questions. Ask for code examples, explanations, or debugging help.

Privacy

When using AI Q&A:

  • Your voice is transcribed locally on your Mac (audio never leaves)
  • Your question text is sent to your chosen AI provider
  • The AI’s answer is streamed back and displayed locally
  • Nothing is typed into any application

For details, see Privacy & Security.

Troubleshooting

Q&A mode doesn’t activate

  • Make sure you say “Hey Yapper” clearly at the start
  • Check that an AI provider is configured in Settings → AI
  • Verify your API key is valid and has credits
  • Try speaking “Hey Yapper” as two distinct words

No answer appears

  • Check your internet connection
  • Verify your AI provider’s API key has available credits
  • Try a different AI provider or model
  • Check the provider’s status page for outages

Answer is cut off or incomplete

  • The AI may have hit its response limit
  • Try asking a more focused question
  • Switch to a model that supports longer responses