Set up Jarq
Two minutes from the download to your first translation: install it, grant two permissions, and try the keys.
Download JarqAlready downloaded? Start at step 2.
1. Check your Mac
Open the Apple menu → About This Mac. Chip should name an Apple M-series chip, and macOS a version of 13 or later. Jarq does not run on a Mac with an Intel processor.
2. Install
- Open the disk image in your Downloads — its name is Jarq- and a version, such as
Jarq-1.0-b81.dmg. - Drag Jarq into the Applications folder.
- Open Jarq from Applications. macOS asks whether to open an app downloaded from the internet — choose Open. Jarq is notarized by Apple; the question is asked of every app that arrives this way.
Opened it straight from the disk image? Jarq offers to Move to Applications — let it. macOS grants permissions to a place on disk rather than to an app, so a copy running from anywhere else would need everything granted again. When setup is done, Jarq offers to move the installer to the Trash.
3. The short tour
A small card walks you through the rest. Any step can be skipped and changed later in Settings.
- Accessibility — the one permission Jarq needs to start. Press Grant, then switch Jarq on in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility; macOS asks for Touch ID or your password to change it. It lets Jarq read the text you select and type the result where your cursor is.
- Your translate pair — the languages the buttons translate into.
- Capture anything — whether the buttons appear on every selection, or only when you press ⌥T.
- Which buttons — Improve is on to start; add Short, Fix, Formal, Friendly, Simple, Rephrase or Ask.
- Microphone — only for dictation. Everything before this step works without it.
- Try your voice and ask it something — both right in the card.
- Where Jarq listens — in the cloud, or on this Mac once the speech model is downloaded.
- 14 days of Pro, free — press Start my trial. No account, no email, no card.
Jarq then opens its window and settles into the menu bar. It starts with your Mac, so the keys are there when you reach for them; that can be switched off in Settings → General.
4. Try it
Select some text
Select a sentence in any app — a draft in Mail, a web page, a PDF. A small dot appears beside it; move the pointer onto the dot and the buttons open. Pick a language or an action, and the answer appears in a bubble: Insert puts it in place of your selection, Copy takes it elsewhere. To have answers replace the selection straight away, turn on Auto-insert selection results in Settings → Text Capture.
Or press ⌥T
With text selected, ⌥T opens the same buttons without the dot — and it works in Figma, terminals and Telegram, where a selection shows nothing. With nothing selected, it opens Ask Jarq anything.
Dictate
Click into any text field, press ⌥` — Option and the backtick key — and speak. Press it again when you are done: the words land at the cursor, with punctuation. Esc cancels. Would rather hold the key while you talk? Choose Push to talk in Settings → Dictation, where the key itself can be changed too.
Speaking one language and typing another is one setting away: answer in a language you do not write quickly.
5. Optional: dictation on this Mac
In Settings → Dictation → Where your voice goes, choose On this Mac and download the speech model — 632 MB, once. Dictation then works offline, free and unlimited on every plan. Translation, the actions and Ask still use the cloud. More in the guide.
After the trial
After 14 days Jarq moves to the free plan: 5 dictations or translations a day, with dictation on this Mac not counted at all. A licence lifts the limit — see pricing. Bought one? The key arrives by email: enter it from the menu bar → Enter Licence Key…, or in Account → Upgrade to Jarq Pro → I already have a licence key.
Updates arrive by themselves and are applied when you quit Jarq — never in the middle of a dictation.
If something does not work
Jarq does not type, or says it lost Accessibility
macOS sometimes switches the permission off when an app updates, even while the switch in System Settings still looks on. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and switch Jarq off, then on again. Not in the list? Press + and add it from Applications. Jarq restarts itself once the switch is on.
The permissions are on, and it still acts as if they were not
Check which copy is running. The grant belongs to the Jarq in Applications; a second copy in Downloads or on the disk image has none of its own. Quit it, eject the disk image, and open Jarq from Applications.
A shortcut does nothing
Another app has probably taken it. Pick a different one in Settings — Text Capture for ⌥T, Dictation for the dictation key. If no key of Jarq's works anywhere, an app may be holding macOS's Secure Keyboard Entry — a password field left open, or the Terminal setting of that name. Locking the screen and unlocking it releases it.
The dot never appears in Figma, the terminal or Telegram
Those apps do not tell macOS what is selected. Select the text and press ⌥T: Jarq copies it itself and puts your clipboard back afterwards. How it works in Figma and the terminal.
Dictation says the microphone is off, or hears nothing
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and switch Jarq on. If it says No speech detected, it heard nothing for eight seconds: choose the right microphone from the menu bar → Microphone.
Still stuck
In Jarq, Feedback sends us a note with the app and macOS versions attached. Or write to [email protected]. The log in Settings → General → Show Log holds no dictated text and helps us find the cause.
Removing Jarq
Giving away a Mac that holds your licence? First disconnect it in Account → Macs using this licence, so the slot comes back. Then quit Jarq from the menu bar and drag it from Applications to the Trash. Its history, vocabulary and the speech model live in ~/Library/Application Support/Jarq — delete that folder too if you want nothing left behind.