Installing
Murmurtale 1.1.5 (build 1026) is a notarized download from the download page. Create a free account, sign in, and download; installed copies update automatically.
Run it from ApplicationsAlways launch Murmurtale from your Applications folder (Spotlight, Launchpad, or the Dock) — not from a Downloads or project folder. macOS can run an app opened from certain synced folders as a frozen read-only copy, which makes updates look like they did not take. Applications avoids that entirely.
What happens on first launch
The first time you open Murmurtale, it downloads its on-device speech model (about 632 MB) and compiles it for your Mac's Neural Engine once. You will see progress in Preferences. This takes roughly a minute on a fast connection and only happens once.
After that, Murmurtale opens a short three-step welcome window. Step one is granting permissions.