Privacy and data

Heard can run with local components or optional hosted services. The data boundary depends on the speech, narration, and product path you choose.

Part	Local path	Hosted path	What is processed
Speech output	Kokoro	Managed voice, ElevenLabs, or Speechify	Only the text Heard decided to speak
Narration	Neutral templates	Managed narration or your Anthropic key	Compact event context and relevant agent response text
Dictation and push to talk	On-device speech recognition	No hosted service required	Microphone audio stays on your Mac
Heard Parrot (Power)	Codebase reads on your Mac	Hosted live voice service	What you say to Parrot and the answer it speaks
Session events	Local hooks (and, in the open source engine, local session logs)	Optional narration processing after local collection	Events stay local until a selected hosted feature processes relevant text
Cloud agents	None	Heard’s relay at api.heard.dev	The agent’s reports (deleted after 7 days) and the messages you send it (deleted after 30 days)

Managed app

The managed app provides hosted voices and narration without asking you to configure provider keys. Relevant text is sent to the selected hosted service when a cloud voice or narration feature needs it.

Open source engine

The Apache 2.0 engine can use local Kokoro speech and neutral templates without a Heard account. You may also supply your own provider keys directly to the engine.

Coding agent integrations

Claude Code and Codex CLI hooks send events to Heard locally.
In the open source engine, the Codex app observer reads local session activity on the same Mac, and the heard run wrapper reads output exposed by the wrapped terminal process.
Cloud agents send their reports to Heard’s relay, which the app picks up while you’re signed in. See Cloud agents.
Speech generation and narration happen after Heard decides an event deserves airtime.

Dictation

Push to talk and dictation are transcribed on your Mac. Microphone audio does not leave your Mac to turn your words into text.

Heard Parrot

A conversation with Heard Parrot uses a hosted live voice service, which processes what you say to Parrot and the answer it speaks. Parrot reads your code on your Mac and never edits it.

Transcripts

Heard does not keep the text of what you say unless you turn on Store my transcripts in Settings under General. Stored transcripts stay on this Mac, and you can delete them there.

Fully local means using the open source engine with local Kokoro speech and neutral templates. Choosing a cloud voice or hosted narration service sends the minimum relevant text required for that feature.

For legal terms, see the Heard privacy policy and terms.