Zeph

Zeph is a voice-first interface that puts AI agents on a small screen and microphone beside the user rather than leaving every interaction inside a laptop. It pairs a Mac app with ZephOS running on supported ESP32 boards. A person presses a physical button to speak, sends the result into an app or agent, and uses the display for short updates that can be read without opening another window. The product is positioned as a hardware companion for existing tools rather than a new general assistant that replaces them.

The simplest workflow is system-wide dictation. Zeph's companion can type into the field where the cursor is active, so it doesn't need a text box of its own. The dedicated button avoids competing keyboard shortcuts, while a microphone close to the speaker is intended to capture speech more clearly than a laptop across the room. The site names Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Obsidian, Notion, Raycast, Warp, Zed, Ollama, and Linear among the tools it works with. Zeph says anything that responds to a keyboard shortcut can work from the start, which makes the device useful for ordinary dictation as well as agent prompts.

The screen adds a second type of interaction. Zeph calls small persistent status views glances, with examples that show an agent's rate limit, continuous integration status, and the next meeting. An agent can also push a result, approval request, or other alert to the device through MCP. The user can respond on the hardware without reaching for the Mac. This makes Zeph closer to an AI pager than a smart speaker. It is designed for compact updates and decisions that benefit from being visible on a desk, not for displaying an entire editor or long conversation.

Privacy is a visible part of the design. Zeph says audio and state stay on the device by default, with encryption and no required cloud round trip. Users can run with a local model or choose a cloud model, and the company says they hold their own keys. The product also lists Bluetooth and a local-first posture among its core capabilities. Those choices can reduce the amount of ambient audio that leaves the user's setup, though the privacy of a complete workflow still depends on whichever model and agent services the user connects.

ZephOS supports more than one board. The device page currently marks four Waveshare ESP32-S3 AMOLED boards as supported, with different screen sizes, shapes, memory, and microSD arrangements. The supported displays range from 1.75 inches to 2.16 inches and include both round and rectangular formats. Full boards can run apps from Zeph's Library in addition to voice and glances. Lite boards keep the core voice and glance functions but don't include the app runtime. Some additional Waveshare and M5Stack devices are marked experimental or coming soon, so buyers need to check the exact board status before ordering. The hardware itself comes from third-party stores, and Zeph makes clear that it doesn't sell the boards or handle those orders.

Makers can extend the device with an SDK and sandboxed WebAssembly apps. The same app target is meant to be portable across supported Zeph hardware, which gives developers a route to build a custom status view, tool, or small device application without tying it to one screen. This is most relevant to developers who already use coding agents, people who dictate frequently, and builders who want a physical control surface for a model running locally or in the cloud. Team features such as fleet provisioning, a management dashboard, single sign-on, and policy controls are described as coming soon, so Zeph is currently a better fit for individuals and hands-on makers than a managed company rollout. The currently supported Waveshare boards all use ESP32-S3 processors with PSRAM, while screen resolutions range from 368 by 448 to 480 by 480. The device catalog separates supported, experimental, and coming soon states instead of presenting every listed board as ready. It also notes that radio hardware such as Wi-Fi is a board capability and doesn't necessarily mean a corresponding Zeph feature has shipped.

The site offers a Mac download and doesn't show a software subscription or paid plan. A usable setup still requires compatible hardware, which is bought separately, and may require flashing ZephOS onto the board. That means the cost depends on the third-party board a user chooses even though the companion software is presented without a price. The combination is appealing when push-to-talk, ambient status, and local control solve a real daily friction. People who only want voice input on a laptop may find the extra device unnecessary, and Windows or Linux users aren't shown a desktop download on the public site.