This London Startup Wants to Kill Your Keyboard With a $150 AI Microphone

Key points

• Relay, a London-based startup founded by two former Nothing employees, launched its voice-to-text macOS app in mid-2025.
• The Relay Q hardware microphone will cost $150 and ship in early 2027, bundling one year of software.
• After the free year, the software subscription costs $15 per month, and it works without the hardware.
• Relay's transcription runs on Google's Gemini AI models, and data passes through Relay's servers before reaching Google's servers for processing.
• Two rival wearable microphone products, the Stream Ring and the Pebble Index 01, are already shipping to early buyers.

How much do you hate typing? Relay, a startup based in London, is betting the answer is "quite a lot" and that you'll pay to stop.

The company launched its macOS app this week. The physical product, a portable microphone called the Relay Q, follows in early 2027.

What does Relay actually do?

Relay is a voice-to-text tool, software that turns your spoken words into typed text, but it goes further than basic dictation. Hold down a hotkey (the function key by default), speak into any text field on your Mac, and Relay types what you said, strips filler words, and tidies up your grammar on the way.

The transcription engine runs on Google's Gemini models, a family of large language models (the same type of AI technology that powers chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude). That matters for privacy: your audio travels through Relay's own servers on its way to Google's servers for processing. Relay says it does not keep your data after that, and stores any local history on your own device where you can delete it yourself.

Granting any AI tool access to your microphone and screen carries real trade-offs, similar to concerns raised about Microsoft's Recall feature. Read the permissions carefully before installing.

Relay also offers what it calls Skills, automated sequences where it can open an app, find a contact, and draft a message, all from a single voice command. Wired, which first tested the beta, found the Slack skill unreliable but the Google Calendar skill solid. Beta software being patchy is normal; results will likely improve.

Who built it and why?

Cookie Xu and Raymond Zhu both worked at Nothing, the consumer electronics company. Xu led AI and services; Zhu managed hardware products. They used dictation software daily but kept hitting the same wall: talking at the right volume in an open office is almost impossible. Too loud and colleagues stare. Too quiet and the laptop mic misses every word.

Their fix is dedicated hardware. The Relay Q is a small cylinder. Press the top to dictate, or clip the button to your shirt so your hands stay free. Whisper directly into it and it should pick you up clearly, according to Zhu. A double-tap sends the message. It charges on a small desk dock, and a separate MagSafe grip lets you snap it to the back of a compatible iPhone.

How does the price break down?

Should you pay attention now?

Relay is not alone. The Stream Ring and the Pebble Index 01 are both ring-shaped wearable microphones already shipping to early buyers. Relay considered a ring and passed, partly because the smart-ring market is crowded. The cylinder form is a bet that desk workers want something they can set down and forget.

The software is available today if you want to try it on your Mac with whatever microphone you already own. Early impressions suggest the transcription is decent but not the best available, and accuracy should improve once dedicated hardware removes the delay.

The honest takeaway: download the app, try it free (check the current trial terms on Relay's site), and judge whether $15 a month saves you enough typing to be worth it before committing to the hardware in 2027.