Hintglass
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Set the interview language in Hintglass
Hintglass, a macOS menu-bar app, transcribes both sides of the call on your Mac in the language you choose in Settings → Interview language, so pick the one the interviewer speaks and install its speech model.
Transcription uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition, which needs a model for the language on your Mac.
Choose the language
- Choose Settings… from the Hintglass menu.
- In Interview language, open Language and pick the language the interviewer speaks. Under Your keyboards are the languages of the keyboards enabled on your Mac. For any other, choose Other…, then pick it in Other language.
- If the language you picked says “— not installed”, click Install speech model. It downloads Apple’s on-device model for that language. The button’s status reads “Installing…”, then “Installed”.
- Start a new session. Language changes apply the next time you start a session.
Models install from Settings only, never when a session starts, so starting a session never waits on a download.
Automatic (follows your Mac)
- Automatic (follows your Mac) uses your Mac’s language and region. The row Automatic uses shows which model that comes to.
- If there is a speech model for your region, it must be installed: another region’s model is never used instead. If there is none for your region, Hintglass uses the closest installed model for the language.
- When the model Automatic needs is missing, Automatic has its own Install speech model button. Installing it doesn’t change your choice: Automatic stays selected.
Your keyboards, and languages with no model
- Your keyboards lists the language of each keyboard enabled on your Mac, in your Mac’s region where there is a model for it.
- A language with no speech model on your Mac is greyed out, marked “— no speech model on this Mac”, and can’t be chosen. On macOS 27.0.1 there is none for Polish, for example, so a Polish interview can’t be transcribed.
- A language you chose earlier whose region no longer has a model of its own, after a macOS update say, shows the model a session would use instead: “— uses German (Germany)”, or “— uses German (Germany), not installed” while that model is missing, when Install speech model installs it.
- Switching keyboards never changes the interview language.
- Other… lists every language and region there is a speech model for.
- Language names are in your Mac’s language.
The language warning
Hintglass checks the language a session would use when it opens, when you change the language, when a model install ends and when you close one of its windows. If there is no usable model:
- The Hintglass icon in the menu bar turns into a warning triangle, and the menu says what is wrong: “No on-device speech model is available for language. Choose an interview language in Settings → Interview language.” or “The speech model for language isn’t installed. Install it in Settings → Interview language.”
- Open Setup… shows the same line under “Speech Model Language”, with an Open Settings button.
- A session won’t start until it is fixed: the start fails with the same line.
- Dismiss in the menu doesn’t clear it. It goes once the model is installed, or once you choose a language whose model is.