Getting Started with Alison Workspace
Set up live bilingual captions on your Mac in a few simple steps.
2026-08-03 · 4 minGetting Started with Alison Workspace
Read live bilingual captions from Mac system audio, your microphone, or both. Transcribe local audio and video files with speaker labels, review the text, and export it. Recognition and translation run on your Mac after resources are installed.
Choose your languages
Select the language being spoken and the language you want to read. The app checks which local Apple resources or Whisper model are available on your Mac.
Allow audio access
macOS asks for System Audio Recording permission to caption Mac playback. Microphone permission is requested only when you choose a microphone source. Alison does not save screen frames or raw audio.
Place the subtitle bar
Move and resize the floating caption bar so it stays close to the content without covering important controls.
Offline file transcription
Import local audio or video, edit the transcript and translate it on your Mac after the required resources are installed.
Speaker labels and review
Separate speakers in files, rename labels and replay the original with the current line highlighted; English also supports word highlighting.
Export and keep your text
Export SRT, VTT, TXT, Markdown, CSV or PDF. Add names and specialist terms with the custom dictionary and supported hot-word settings.
Choose the next guide for your task
Use the related guides below to continue with the task you actually need: following live speech, translating it, preparing a file transcript, checking privacy or fixing audio permissions. Each guide explains its own setup and limits. Check your actual app, audio route and supported languages before a long session.
Sources
Apple Support — Get captions of spoken and computer audio on Mac
Apple Developer — ScreenCaptureKit
Apple: Live Captions on Mac
Apple: Work in multiple Spaces
Microsoft: diarization and generic speaker identifiers
Amazon Transcribe: speaker labels and timestamps
FluidAudio: on-device speaker diarization framework
Apple: reading media from a file-based asset
Apple: reading an individual media track
WhisperKit: on-device speech-to-text framework
Alison Workspace — File transcription and export
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I caption my voice and the other side of a call?
Yes. Choose microphone and system audio together for separate source labels and independent recognition and translation languages. Use headphones to reduce echo. This does not identify every remote speaker.
What is included in the free trial?
New users receive 120 minutes of live captions and 60 minutes of file transcription. Live time counts only while captions are produced; file allowance counts processed audio duration.
Is a monthly subscription required?
A one-time Pro Lifetime purchase is available alongside monthly and annual subscriptions. US reference prices are $4.99 monthly, $29.99 annually and $39.99 once. The App Store in your region shows the amount payable.
Does it automatically summarize my recordings with AI?
Alison creates editable transcripts and exports text, including Markdown. Summarization in a separate AI tool is your choice; sending text to a cloud tool changes where that text is processed.
What Mac is required?
macOS 15 or later on an Apple-silicon Mac (M1 or newer). Intel Macs are not supported.
Does Alison Workspace work offline?
Yes. After the required Apple language resources or local Whisper model are downloaded once, audio capture, recognition, and translation run on the Mac. Internet may be needed only for the first resource download.