London Startup Unveils AI-Driven Voice Mic to Replace Keyboard Typing

Relay, founded by former Nothing AI head Cookie Xu and hardware manager Raymond Zhu, introduced its AI-powered voice dictation app for macOS, leveraging Google’s Gemini large language models. The duo highlighted the difficulty of speaking at the right volume in shared office spaces, leading to the design of the Relay Q, a portable, cylindrical microphone that can be held or clipped to clothing. The software activates via a configurable hotkey and can perform contextual actions, called Skills, such as sending messages in Slack or creating Google Calendar events, though some skills performed better than others in testing.

Data is stored locally on the user’s device, with only transient transmission to Relay’s servers before reaching Google, and the company claims it does not retain the content. The Relay Q will launch in early 2027 for $150, including a year of service, after which the software costs $15 per month; the app itself remains usable without the hardware.