Yapper Yapper / Help Center

Transcript History

Access and manage your past transcriptions

Yapper keeps a history of your transcriptions so you can revisit, search, and copy past text. This guide covers how to use the history feature.

Quick Copy from Menu Bar

Need your last transcription without opening the history window? Click the Yapper icon in the menu bar and select Copy Last Transcript. This copies your most recent transcription to the clipboard in one click.

The menu item is disabled when no transcripts exist yet.

Accessing History

To open your transcript history:

  1. Click the Yapper icon in the menu bar
  2. Select History

The history window opens, showing your past transcriptions.

What’s Stored

Each history entry includes:

  • Transcribed text — The full text that was transcribed
  • Timestamp — When the transcription was created
  • Source — Whether it was from live dictation or file transcription
  • Source type — Whether from live dictation, file transcription, AI Transform, or AI Q&A

Transcriptions are saved to history regardless of whether Auto-Type is enabled. This means you can disable auto-type and still use history as a record of everything you’ve dictated.

Finding Transcriptions

Browsing

History entries are displayed in reverse chronological order (newest first). Scroll through to find older transcriptions.

Searching

Use the search bar at the top of the history window:

  1. Type your search term
  2. Results filter in real-time
  3. Matching transcriptions are highlighted

Search looks through the full text of all transcriptions.

Using History Entries

Copying Text

To copy a transcription:

  1. Click on the entry to select it
  2. Click the Copy button
  3. Paste wherever you need it (⌘ V)

Viewing Details

Click an entry to expand it and see:

  • Full transcription text
  • When it was created
  • Source type and metadata

Deleting Entries

To remove a transcription from history:

  1. Select the entry
  2. Click the delete button (trash icon)
  3. Confirm the deletion

Deleted entries cannot be recovered.

Storage and Retention

Where History Is Stored

Your transcript history is stored locally on your Mac in:

~/Library/Application Support/Yapper/

History is saved as JSON files and never uploaded to any server.

Automatic Cleanup

Transcriptions are automatically deleted after the retention period (default: 90 days). This keeps your storage usage reasonable while maintaining recent history.

Manual Cleanup

You can delete individual entries or clear all history:

  • Single entry — Select and delete as described above
  • All history — Delete the history folder from Application Support (requires quitting Yapper first)

Privacy Notes

Your transcript history:

  • Stays on your Mac — Never synced to cloud services
  • Isn’t backed up automatically — Unless you include Application Support in your backups
  • Can contain sensitive information — Be mindful of what you dictate

If you dictate sensitive content and want to remove it:

  1. Open History
  2. Find and delete the specific entries
  3. Or disable history storage entirely (by deleting the history folder)

Tips

Quick Reference

History is great for:

  • Retrieving text you dictated earlier
  • Copying common phrases you use frequently
  • Reviewing what you said in a meeting
  • Finding that perfect wording you used before

Organization

While Yapper doesn’t have folders or tags, you can:

  • Use search to find specific content
  • Keep recent transcriptions readily accessible
  • Delete entries you no longer need

Limitations

History has some limitations to be aware of:

  • No export — You can’t export all history at once; copy entries individually
  • No sync — History doesn’t sync between Macs
  • No editing — You can’t edit stored transcriptions; copy and edit elsewhere
  • Limited metadata — Only timestamp and source type are stored