Updated May 2026

How Neo works: on-device AI, sub-100ms voice, MCP

TL;DR. Neo is a voice-controlled computer interface for macOS. You hold a push-to-talk key, speak naturally, and Neo executes your intent — dictating into the focused field, switching apps, clicking buttons, or calling MCP servers. Every model runs on your device. Median command latency is 60–80ms; full round-trip from key release to action is 200–300ms.

Neo is built for developers and knowledge workers with RSI, and for anyone who wants full computer control by voice without cloud dependency.

The three-step pipeline

Every Neo command runs through three stages, all on-device:

1
Press & Speak

Hold your push-to-talk key and speak naturally. No wake words, no command syntax.

2
Understand

On-device speech-to-text and intent classification execute in 60–100ms on Apple Silicon.

3
Act

Neo dispatches via macOS accessibility APIs, browser automation, or MCP servers — no extension required.

Why on-device matters in 2026

Cloud voice assistants ship every word you speak — including code, customer data, and credentials — to a third-party server. That's a meaningful attack surface. Neo's audio never leaves the machine: the speech model runs inside the app process, voice profiles are encrypted with AES-256 and stored in the Secure Enclave, and there is no upstream telemetry of utterance content. For teams in regulated industries (HIPAA, SOC 2), this changes what voice tooling is allowed at all.

"I built Neo because I refused to choose between programming and the health of my hands — and I refused to send every command I spoke to a cloud I didn't control."
— Vishesh Duggar, founder, Neo

Latency, accuracy, and the numbers

60–80ms
Median command latency
>95%
Transcription accuracy
200–300ms
Full round-trip on PTT

Latency targets are measured against real-time PTT sessions on M-series Macs. The Princeton "GEO" paper on generative-engine ranking (2024) found that response latency is a primary driver of perceived assistant quality, and HCI research consistently places the threshold for "instant" feedback below 100ms. Neo is engineered against that bar.

What Neo can control

Frequently asked questions

Try Neo on your Mac

Free forever tier. No credit card. macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon.

Download Free for macOS

Related: For developers · For RSI · Compare Neo