Handy – free open source speech-to-text app

(github.com)

61 points | by tin7in 4 hours ago ago

15 comments

  • blutoot 38 minutes ago ago

    I have dystonia which often stiffens my arms in a way that makes it impossible for me to type on a keyboard. TTS apps like SuperWhisper have proven to be very helpful for me in such situations. I am hoping to get a similar experience out of "Handy" (very apt maming from my perspective).

    I do, however, wonder if there is a way all these TTS tools can get to the next level. The generated text should not be just a verbatim copy of what I just said, but depending on the context, it should elaborate. For example, if my cursor is actively inside an editor/IDE with some code, my coding-related verbal prompts should actually generate the right/desired code in that IDE.

    Perhaps this is a bit of combining TTS with computer-use.

  • miniwark 4 minutes ago ago

    Did this thing (or open-whispr) work well with other languages than english ?

  • PhilippGille an hour ago ago

    Has anyone compared this with https://github.com/HeroTools/open-whispr already? From the description they seem very similar.

    Handy first release was June 2025, OpenWhispr a month later. Handy has ~11k GitHub stars, OpenWhispr has ~730.

  • bn-usd-mistake 15 minutes ago ago

    Does anyone have a similar mobile application that works locally and is not too expensive? Mostly looking to transcribe voice messages sent over Signal which does not offer this OOTB

  • frankdilo 2 hours ago ago

    This looks great! What’s missing for me to switch from something like Wispr Flow is the ability to provide a dictionary for commonly mistaken words (name of your company, people, code libraries).

  • llarsson an hour ago ago

    A question because I'm not using speech-to-text, but find it intriguing (especially since it's now possible to do locally and for free).

    How have your computing habits changed as a result of having this? When do you typically use this instead of typing on the keyboard?

  • dumbmrblah an hour ago ago

    I just set this up today. I had Whispering app set up on my Windows computer, but it really wasn't working well on my Ubuntu computer that I just set up. I found Handy randomly. It was the last app I needed to go Linux full-time. Thank you!

  • mrroryflint 43 minutes ago ago

    On a M4 Macbook Air, there was enough lag to make it unusable for me. I hit the shortcut and start speaking but there was always a 1-2sec delay before it would actually start transcribing even if the icon was displayed.

  • Jack5500 2 hours ago ago

    The Parakeet V3 model is really great!

  • vladstudio an hour ago ago

    Use it daily. Looks and works great.

  • chainmail2029 an hour ago ago

    There's a slightly awkward naming overlap with an existing product.

  • Dnguyen an hour ago ago

    Would be nice if the output can be piped directly into Claude Code.

  • jborichevskiy 2 hours ago ago

    Big Handy fan!

  • blutoot an hour ago ago

    Crashes on Tahoe 26.3 Betq 1 :(

  • dotancohen 2 hours ago ago

    Looks interesting. Why does it need a GUI at all?