Short version
A lot of AI transcription has drifted toward a model where your audio runs through someone else's servers and a bot quietly joins your meetings to record everyone in them. That has become a genuine privacy and consent problem. Vidgest takes the opposite approach: transcription of local files runs on your Mac, transcripts live in a local library, there is no account, and the app never joins a call as a participant. You stay in control of what leaves your machine.
The shift that made this matter
For years, transcription meant uploading a file and waiting for a server to send text back. Then meeting assistants normalized something more invasive: an automated participant that sits in your video calls and records everyone present, often without the other people in the room being asked. The convenience is real, but so is the exposure — sensitive conversations stored on third-party servers, recordings of people who never agreed to be recorded, and account histories that become their own liability.
Vidgest was built on the assumption that you should not have to accept that trade to get a transcript and a good summary.
How Vidgest keeps it private
On-device transcription
Local audio and video files are transcribed on your Mac with on-device Whisper, using the Neural Engine. The audio is processed locally and the temporary file is deleted afterward. Nothing is uploaded to transcribe it.
No bot in your calls
Vidgest is not a meeting notetaker. It never joins a call as a participant and never records other people. It works on YouTube videos you paste and files you choose, on your terms.
Local-first storage
Transcripts live in a local library on your Mac. No account, no server-side history, no sync by default. Your research stays where you put it.
You control the AI call
AI analysis runs only when you ask. It sends the transcript text to the provider you chose — never your identity, library, or history. Bring your own key on Max and the request goes directly under your own account.
What actually leaves your Mac, and when
Being honest about this matters more than a slogan. Here is the full picture:
- Fetching a YouTube transcript contacts YouTube to retrieve the publicly available caption text for that video. That is a normal network request, the same data a browser loads with captions on.
- Transcribing a local file happens entirely on your Mac. The audio does not leave the machine.
- Running an AI summary sends the transcript text — and only the transcript text — to the AI provider you selected, at the moment you click. On the Max tier with your own key, that goes directly to Gemini, Claude, or OpenAI under your account.
- Everything else — your library, your search history, your settings — stays local. API keys are stored in the macOS Keychain, encrypted by the operating system.
Why on-device is the durable answer
Server-side transcription and recording bots concentrate sensitive data in one place, which is exactly what makes them attractive targets and recurring sources of consent disputes. On-device processing removes the concentration: there is no central store of your conversations to breach, subpoena, or quietly repurpose. As scrutiny of AI recording keeps growing, the apps that never collected the data in the first place are the ones with nothing to explain.
Get private transcripts on your Mac
Unlimited YouTube transcripts and 3 AI analyses per day on the free tier. On-device transcription on Pro. No account, no credit card.
Download on the Mac App StoreFrequently asked questions
Does Vidgest send my audio to the cloud?
No. On-device transcription runs entirely on your Mac. The audio is processed locally and the temporary file is deleted afterward.
Does Vidgest join my video calls as a bot?
No. It is not a meeting notetaker and never joins a call as a participant. It works on YouTube videos and local files you choose.
Where are my transcripts stored?
In a local library on your Mac. No cloud account, no server-side history, no sync by default.
Is the AI summary private?
It sends only the transcript text to the provider you chose, only when you ask. Never your identity, library, or history. With your own key on Max, the request goes directly under your account.