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macOS permissions

In brief

For Whisperer to hear the call, respond to hotkeys, and read screenshots, it needs three macOS system permissions: Microphone, Screen Recording, and Accessibility. Each handles its own part of the job, and without any one of them some features simply won't turn on.

The most important rule: without the "Screen Recording" permission you won't hear the other person. macOS hands system audio (the other person's voice on the call) to an app only through the screen-recording mechanism. The Microphone, by contrast, only handles your own voice.

When to use this

  • On first launch of the client, when the permission wizard opens.
  • When only the [Me] line shows up in the transcript while [Other] stays empty.
  • When global hotkeys don't work (for example, push-to-talk).
  • After a macOS update, reinstalling the app, or moving to a new Mac.

The three permissions and why each matters

Permission System name Why it's needed
Microphone Microphone Captures your voice. Marked as [Me] in the transcript.
Screen Recording Screen Recording Captures system audio — the other person's voice — and screenshots. This is [Other] in the transcript. Without it, the other person isn't heard.
Accessibility Accessibility Global hotkeys: push-to-talk, show/hide the overlay, knowledge base search, screenshot, text input.

Step-by-step

  1. Launch the permission wizard. On first start, Whisperer automatically opens the wizard (PermissionWizard) if any permission is missing. It shows the status of each of the three permissions and a button to jump into System Settings. Follow its prompts — that's the easiest path.
  2. Open the privacy settings. If you're doing it manually: Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security.
  3. Grant Microphone. Open the Microphone section and turn on the toggle next to Whisperer. This enables capture of your voice.
  4. Grant Screen Recording. Open the Screen Recording section and turn on the toggle next to Whisperer. This is the most important permission: it provides both system audio (the other person's voice) and screenshots. macOS may ask you to restart the app for the permission to take effect — restart it.
  5. Grant Accessibility. Open the Accessibility section and turn on the toggle next to Whisperer. This enables global hotkeys.
  6. Restart Whisperer. After granting permissions (especially "Screen Recording"), quit and reopen the app so the changes apply.
  7. Verify. Start a trial session and make sure both roles appear in the transcript — [Me] and [Other] — and that hotkeys fire.

Screenshots

📸 [Screenshot: the permission wizard (PermissionWizard) on first start — statuses of the three permissions]

📸 [Screenshot: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording with the Whisperer toggle on]

📸 [Screenshot: the Microphone section and the Accessibility section with Whisperer toggles]

Common mistakes

  • Only the microphone was granted. The most common situation: [Me] shows up in the transcript but [Other] doesn't. The cause is that the "Screen Recording" permission wasn't granted. System audio isn't available without it.
  • Permission granted, but not working. macOS caches the permission status; after turning the toggle on, you need to restart the app. If that doesn't help, see macOS permission problems.
  • Hotkeys don't work. Accessibility wasn't granted. Global keys aren't intercepted without it.
  • No screenshots / vision doesn't work. Screenshots also go through "Screen Recording" — check that exact permission.
  • Whisperer isn't in the list. Sometimes the app doesn't appear in the section automatically — this is covered in the troubleshooting article.

Best practices

  • Go through the permission wizard end to end on first launch — it covers all three items at once.
  • After granting "Screen Recording", always restart the app — this is standard macOS behavior.
  • If something "broke" after a macOS update, redo all three toggles; OS updates sometimes reset trust in apps.
  • Remember the labeling logic: [Me] = microphone, [Other] = screen recording. This helps you quickly tell which permission to fix.

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