Changelog
Every release, newest first. Found something broken? Tell us.
Voice commands
- NewVoice commands. Draw marks and say "Send this to App, the gap is too big": the capture goes to the agent App, without the command words. With no text field to paste into, it works without marks too. "Send the last one to App" sends the capture before.
- NewSay "Open Orbal", "Open captures", "Open agents", "Open the dictionary", "Open Shape", "Open settings", "Hide the orb", "Show the orb", "Copy the connect line", "Check for updates" or "Send feedback" as a whole take, and Orbal does it.
- NewEnd a take with "Cancel." and nothing is pasted or sent. The capture stays in Captures.
- NewSettings › Voice has Voice commands, to turn them off.
- ImprovedThe orb says where a capture went: "Sent to App", "Copied", "Saved", "Discarded".
- ImprovedMarks drawn close together no longer share the same words. Each mark keeps what you said over it, and marks drawn inside one sentence show that sentence once, so your agent can tell which mark "this" means.
- FixedNotes to a Codex task in the ChatGPT app arrive again. They had stopped with "Invalid app tool request".
The connect line, explained
- ImprovedThe Agents page and How it works now show how to connect an agent: copy the connect line and paste it into any agent, then pick it on the command bar. In How it works, Copy the connect line copies it.
- NewIf you skipped Cloud in the welcome, Settings › License can now email you a key: click Request license key and type your address. Free during the beta. Adding a key switches Shape to Cloud.
- NewSettings › General has Show orb, as the menu's Hide Orb and Show Orb do.
- ImprovedSettings › Voice shows your model, with Open Shape to change it.
- ImprovedThe License icon in Settings is drawn like the others.
- FixedA take that ended on a correction followed by a bracket, a colon, a quote or a line break ("Meet at three, no, four)") could make Orbal quit. So could some takes like "One. Two, no, three people.". They now paste the corrected words.
- FixedA capture's page escapes every quote and bracket in your words, also one joined to an accent or an emoji.
- FixedKeep audio only ever removes a recording inside its own capture.
- Fixedorbal session and orbal page stop with a message on a damaged capture instead of crashing.
A welcome
- NewA welcome when you first open Orbal. You try talking and drawing in its own window, it asks for the microphone, Accessibility and Screen Recording when each is needed, and you pick Shape's model: orb-1-mini on your Mac, or Cloud with a key sent to your email, free during the beta.
- FixedTurning Accessibility off while Orbal ran could freeze the keyboard and mouse. Orbal now waits until it is back on.
- ImprovedOn the Shape page, the cloud model is called Cloud, a larger model. orb-1-mini keeps its name.
- ImprovedAdapt writes an email in Gmail and Outlook on the web, in Chrome, Safari, Arc and other browsers.
Shape, with Orbal's own model
Orbal has its own model now: orb-1-mini. It runs on your Mac, shapes your words while you talk, and nothing leaves your Mac. Pick it on the new Shape page.
- NewOrb-1-mini, Orbal's own model, runs on your Mac, so your words stay private. It shapes your words while you talk, so even a long take pastes almost at once. It downloads once, about 440 MB, when you first pick it, and updates itself when there is a newer version. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon.
- NewShape, a page in the Orbal window's sidebar. Pick a model, then switch on Cleanup, Adapt or both. Cleanup removes fillers and fixes what you said. Adapt fits your words to the app you use: short in Slack, full sentences in Mail. Nothing you did not say gets in: if a model adds something, Orbal pastes your words as its own rules cleaned them.
- NewQwen 3.8, a larger model in the cloud, with a license key (Settings › License).
- NewConcise, on the Shape page, turns a rambling take into the short message you would have typed. It works with Qwen 3.8. With Adapt on too, Concise makes it short and Adapt only lays it out for the app you use.
- NewNo model keeps Orbal's own rules, as before. Cleanup works without a model too: turn it off and your words paste with their fillers. Your Dictionary still spells them.
- ImprovedHow it works has a card for Shape.
Hold to capture
- NewHold to capture, in Settings › Shortcuts. Hold the key while you talk and let go to paste, handy for a quick line. Until you pick a key it uses your Tap to capture key, so Fn still starts and stops with a tap and now also records while you hold it. If your key is ⌥ or ⌘, hold ⇧⌘Space instead, because ⌥ and ⌘ are part of so many shortcuts.
- ImprovedStart and stop is now called Tap to capture, so the two rows read as a pair. How it works, Settings › Voice, the orb and the Captures page say "Tap" where they said "Press".
Launch at login, and a switch for sharing
- NewSettings › General has Launch at login, and Share usage. Turn sharing off and the daily update check no longer sends your macOS version or the rough count of your captures.
- FixedAfter a click on the orb or the command bar, the "click to capture" hint no longer pops up under the pointer, and neither does "Stop" after a click that starts a capture. Each shows the next time you hover the orb.
- FixedOn the command bar, agent names such as Astra sat a little low in their buttons. They sit in the middle now.
The green button in line
- FixedThe green button at the top of the Orbal window sat higher than the red and yellow ones. All three line up again.
A real Mac window
The Orbal window is now a real Mac window: the red, yellow and green buttons, a size you choose, full screen, ⌘Q and ⌘,. Orbal also works with the keyboard and with VoiceOver, and tells you what it reads when it learns from your fixes.
- NewThe window resizes, from its smallest size up. Lists show more rows, and a capture's words and How it works keep a comfortable reading width. The green button or ⌃⌘F takes it full screen. Orbal remembers its size and place.
- New⌘Q quits Orbal and ⌘, opens Settings while the Orbal window is in front.
- NewUse Orbal with the keyboard. With Keyboard navigation on in System Settings, Tab reaches the sidebar, the back rows, links and marks. In Captures, ↑ and ↓ pick a capture and Return opens it.
- NewVoiceOver names the orb, the buttons on the command bar and the menu bar icon, and says "Recording", "Stopped", "Paused", "Pasted into…" and every message on the orb. With VoiceOver off, nothing changes.
- NewDictionary › Auto has a "Learn from my corrections" switch. It says what Orbal does: after a paste, it reads that field for a minute to spot your fixes, and nothing leaves your Mac. Turn it off and Orbal reads nothing after a paste.
- ImprovedThe window has the Mac's own red, yellow and green buttons, corners and shadow, in place of the X. Red or ⌘W hides the window; yellow or ⌘M sends it to the Dock, and your next dictation still pastes where you were.
- ImprovedMicrophone, Keep audio, Fade stroke and Send to open as standard Mac menus.
- ImprovedAn error on the orb stays until your next click, key press or capture, so you have time to read it. Other messages still go after a few seconds.
- ImprovedStart and stop no longer takes the Mac's own shortcuts, such as ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘Z, ⌘Q or ⌘Space. The key says "Used by the system"; pick another.
- ImprovedText in the Orbal window uses one set of sizes, and grey text is easier to read.
- ImprovedHow it works says what a mark keeps: "Each mark saves the window you draw on, never the whole screen."
- FixedA mark drawn on the Orbal window was named after the app behind it. A mark is now named after the window at its middle.
One press, one click
Press your key once to start and once to stop. Holding it no longer does anything. A click on the orb works the same. When you stop, your words paste into the text field you are in or, with none, the capture pauses into the command bar (the chooser's new name). Hold ⌃ and drag to draw. And when you fix a misheard word after a paste, Orbal learns to spell it your way.
- NewOne press or one click starts a capture, and the same again stops it. Your start key is Fn, ⌥, ⌘ or a shortcut you record (⇧⌘Space unless you record another). Holding the key alone does nothing; the first three times, the orb says "Press Fn once to start", with your key. ⇧⌘R is gone: one key starts and stops.
- NewWhere your words go is decided when you stop. With a text field selected they paste there, the words and then your marks. With none, the capture pauses into the command bar, Resume first; press your key there to talk on. When a paste is refused, the bar opens without the check and says why. A capture with no words and no marks says "Nothing captured" and goes to the Trash.
- NewEsc while you talk pauses the capture into the command bar. Esc on the command bar closes it and keeps the capture.
- NewTo draw, hold ⌃ and drag while you talk. ⌃Z undoes the last mark and ⌃C clears them, right after drawing; at any other time they go to your app, so a terminal still gets ⌃C. The start key no longer draws, and bare Z and C no longer undo and clear.
- NewSettings › Shortcuts is back, with Start and stop, Hold to draw (⌃, ⌥, ⌘ or ⇧), Undo mark and Clear marks. Click the keys and press new ones; Delete turns Start and stop off. Keys are drawn as keys, here and throughout Orbal.
- NewHow it works, in the Orbal window's sidebar above Settings: how to start and stop, how to draw, where your words go, and a way to pick another key if yours does not work. Settings › Voice and Settings › Drawing show the same cards.
- NewOrbal learns from your fixes. After a paste it follows the field for about a minute; switching apps pauses it. Fix a misheard word into a word from your Dictionary, or into a name, and from then on it is spelled your way ("Cubanitis" becomes "Kubernetes"). A name Orbal did not know is added to the Dictionary.
- NewThe Dictionary has two tabs. Manual holds the words you typed; Auto holds what Orbal learned from your fixes, with the names it added itself. Delete any fix you do not want.
- ImprovedPress your key while the last capture is still pasting and a new one starts. The pastes land in the order you stopped them.
- ImprovedFewer captures you did not mean. A press counts only when it is quick and nothing else happens in it: another key, a click, a scroll, a media key or moving the pointer spoils it. Nothing starts while Secure Input is on (in a password field, say), and Orbal says so, at most every ten minutes. A capture with no voice and no marks in its first six seconds ends quietly, to the Trash. After two minutes of silence, or twenty minutes, a capture pauses into the command bar and never pastes.
- ImprovedAny click on the menu bar icon opens its menu: Open Orbal, Hide Orb (Show Orb while it is hidden), Copy Connect Line, Check for Updates…, Send Feedback…, Open beta and Quit Orbal. Show Orb brings the orb back with a grey ring that closes in on it, and so does opening Orbal again from Applications.
- ImprovedThe orb goes back to where you put it after the command bar moved it away from a screen edge, and after a display is unplugged.
- ImprovedThe pen is blue to start with, and blue comes first in Settings › Drawing; a colour you picked is kept. The chosen colour shows a dot.
- FixedDiscard could freeze Orbal, and every click, for several seconds: moving the capture to the Trash waited on iCloud Drive.
- FixedThe orb seemed to vanish now and then. A left click on the menu bar icon hid it; now every click opens the menu.
- FixedOrbal could crash when reading the text under a mark failed.
- FixedSend in the Orbal window on a capture still being transcribed never delivered it. It now says "Still transcribing".
- FixedWith ⌘ as your key, ⌘C in a capture with marks cleared them instead of copying.
The Orbal window, and a Dictionary that learns
Orbal now has a window: your captures to search and reopen, your agents, and a Dictionary of your words, which Orbal learns to hear on its own. Change your mind mid-sentence and only what you meant is pasted, and your words arrive sooner after you let go.
- New"Open Orbal…" in the menu bar menu opens the Orbal window: your captures, your agents and a Dictionary, with Settings one level down. Right-click on the orb opens it too. It is an ordinary window: it comes to the front, goes behind when you click away, and ⌘W closes it.
- NewCaptures lists what you said, newest first and by day, with a search that finds it as you type. Click one to open it: its marks along the top, then your words in time order with each still where you drew it. Copy copies it as the orb does, Send to sends it to a connected agent, and Delete moves it to the Trash.
- NewDictionary, a list of the words and names you use. Add, edit and delete them.
- NewChange your mind mid-sentence ("Meet at three, no, four") and only what you meant is pasted: "Meet at four". In English for now. A capture's page and the Orbal window now show exactly what was pasted.
- NewWords you add to the Dictionary are spelled your way more often. Orbal learns on its own how it mishears each one ("whisperflow" and "whisper flow" become "Wispr Flow"), in the background, in about ten seconds a word, in English. Everyday words stay as you said them: "cursor" does not become "Cursor".
- ImprovedYour words arrive sooner after you let go. Orbal now transcribes while you speak, so only the last words are left at release.
- FixedWith ⌘ or ⌥ as your talk key, a shortcut like ⌘C no longer makes the orb open and close. The orb shows once you have held the key alone for about half a second; press another key before that and nothing happens.
- FixedSending a capture to an agent that already had it now delivers it again.
- FixedA quick held capture over a canvas or page with nothing selected, like Paper's artboard, no longer pastes your words onto it. The chooser asks where they go, as it does anywhere else without a text field.
Pause and resume, window-only stills
A capture you start with a click can now pause and pick up again, and the picture kept for each mark you draw shows only the window you drew on.
- NewPause a capture you started with a click. Click the orb again (or press ⇧⌘R) and the microphone turns off; the chooser shows Resume first. Resume records on into the same capture, as many times as you like. Paste, copy, send, save and discard end it as before.
- ChangedThe picture kept for each mark you draw now shows only the window you drew on, not your whole screen. Other apps, the menu bar, the Dock and notifications are left out. A mark on the bare desktop keeps only its close-ups.
- FixedWhen ⇧⌘Space is your push-to-capture key and another app has taken it, Orbal now sends you to Settings › Voice to pick another key. It pointed at a setting that no longer exists.
- Fixedorbal package no longer renames a Comms capture inside Comms's library.
Comms is now Orbal
Comms no longer records the screen. A capture is your voice, your drawing and the stills it needs, and the app is the orb and a settings window: the control bar at the bottom of the screen is gone with the recorder. Recordings made with Comms stay in its library, where Comms and its comms command line keep reading them.
- ChangedA new icon. White grains on black for the app and for your .orbal captures in Finder, the same grains in the menu bar.
- ChangedComms is now Orbal: the app, its website (orbal.app) and its command line (orbal, inside Orbal.app). It installs beside Comms and keeps its own library: captures go to ~/Documents/Orbal as .orbal packages, while Comms keeps its folder and its .comms captures.
- NewOn first launch Orbal brings over your Comms settings (hold key, shortcuts, microphone, pen, orb position, keep audio) and, while Comms is running, offers to quit it: both listen for the same hold key.
- ChangedThe screen recorder and the control bar are gone, and so is everything that only served them: the play button and its countdown, the timer, the capture-area and screen pickers, the bar's send menu and its post-stop agent chips, "Reveal in Finder" and "Copy path when saved".
- ChangedDrawing is no longer a mode you turn on. The pen lives inside a capture: hold the capture key and drag. The old ⇧⌘D Draw and Esc Stop drawing shortcuts are gone, as are the pen colour (1–5) and pen size (S) keys: colour, width and fade come from Settings › Drawing. ⌘Z undo and C clear stay, while the key is held.
- Changed⇧⌘R starts and stops a capture, the same one a click on the orb makes.
- ChangedThe canvas is gone, and ⇧⌘C with it. The pen draws on the screen, inside a capture; the white sheet was not being used. It can come back if it is missed.
- ChangedScreen Recording permission is still asked for, now because a still of the screen is kept for each mark you draw. Without it the words and the transcript are unaffected; only the ink's stills are.
- NewA capture you drew in pastes its drawings too. Hold the key, speak, draw, release: the words go into the field you were in, and each mark follows as a picture. Apps that take pictures show them; apps that do not (a plain text field, a terminal) take the words and ignore the rest. The drawings are in the capture's folder either way, and if you click into something else while they are going out, the ones left stay there rather than landing in the wrong place. A capture started with a click still asks first, and its check now pastes everything.
- NewSettings → General → Keep audio: Never (the default), 30 days, or Forever. With Never, the recording of a capture goes to the Trash once its words are written; with 30 days, after thirty days. The transcript and the drawings stay. A capture that could not be transcribed keeps its audio whatever the setting says.
- ChangedA capture's page is plainer. The "Comms capture" label, the "The take" heading, the Listen button, the line above the transcript and each mark's Full screenshot button are gone, and the chips under the date start with a capital. While its audio is kept, click a time to hear the capture from there; click the lit one again to pause.
- ChangedSettings is quieter. The explanatory line under each page is gone, and About has a Quit Orbal button in its corner.
- NewRight-click the orb (or control-click it) to open Settings. The orb is the one thing always on screen, so it no longer needs the menu bar icon to reach them.
- FixedThe permissions panel under the menu bar icon now asks for Accessibility too; without it Orbal can't paste your words or hear the hold key. Each permission keeps a button to its page in System Settings, even once it is allowed.