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Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

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Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#81

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

There is one single app I've been able to find that offers Parakeet-v3 for free locally and it's called Spokenly. They have paid cloud models available as well, but the local Parakeet-v3 implementation is totally free and is the best STT has to offer these days regardless. Super fast and accurate. I consider single-user STT basically a solved problem at this point.

Spokenly is great too, but Handy's minimalistic and focused UI won me over.

Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#83
post #33

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 verba…

I made something called `ultraplan`. It's is a CLI tool that records multi-modal context (audio transcription via local Whisper, screenshots, clipboard content, etc.) into a timeline that AI agents like Claude Code can consume. I have a claude skill `/record` that runs the CLI which starts a new recording. I debug, research, etc., then say "finito" (or choose your own stopword). It outputs a markdown file with your t…

https://github.com/definite-app/ultraplan

Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made something called `ultraplan`. It's is a CLI tool that records multi-modal context (audio transcription via local Whisper, screenshots, clipboard content, etc.) into a timeline that AI agents like Claude Code can consume. I have a claude skill `/record` that runs the CLI which starts a new recording. I debug, research, etc., then say "finito" (or choose your own stopword). It outputs a markdown file with your t…

Definitely interested in that!

Added link above!

Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made something called `ultraplan`. It's is a CLI tool that records multi-modal context (audio transcription via local Whisper, screenshots, clipboard content, etc.) into a timeline that AI agents like Claude Code can consume. I have a claude skill `/record` that runs the CLI which starts a new recording. I debug, research, etc., then say "finito" (or choose your own stopword). It outputs a markdown file with your t…

Sounds interesting I would love to use it if you get a chance to push to github

https://github.com/definite-app/ultraplan

Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#86
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you said is possible by feeding the output of speech-to-text tools into an LLM. You can prompt the LLM to make sense of what you're trying to achieve and create sets of actions. With a CLI it’s trivial, you can have your verbal command translated into working shell commands. With a GUI it’s slightly more complicated because the LLM agent needs to know what you see on the screen, etc. That CLI bit I mentioned ear…

Handy can post process with LLMs too! It’s just currently hidden behind a debug menu as an alpha feature (ctrl/cmd+shift+d)

I was just thinking about building something like this, looks like you beat me to the punch, I will have to try it out. I'm curious if you're able to give commands just as well as some wording you want cleaned up. I could see a model being confused between editting the command input into text to be inserted and responding to the command. Sorry if that's unclear, might be better if I just try it.

Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#88

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

There is one single app I've been able to find that offers Parakeet-v3 for free locally and it's called Spokenly. They have paid cloud models available as well, but the local Parakeet-v3 implementation is totally free and is the best STT has to offer these days regardless. Super fast and accurate. I consider single-user STT basically a solved problem at this point.

Spokenly is my go-to app on iOS for transcription as well.

Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#89
A cautionary user experience report. The default hotkey upon download is ctrl+space. Press to begin recording, release to transcribe and insert. Key-up on the space key constitutes hotkey release. If the ctrl key is still down when the insertion lands, the transcribed text is treated as ctrl characters. The test app was emacs. (x64 linux x11, with and without xdotool)

Re: Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app

#90

I’ve tried several, including this one, and I’ve settled on VoiceInk (local, one-time payment), and with Parakeet V3 it’s stunningly fast (near-instant) and accurate enough to talk to LLMs/code-agents, in the sense that the slight drop in accuracy relative to Whisper Turbo3 is immaterial since they can “read between the lines” anyway. My regular cycle is to talk informally to the CLI agent and ask it to “say back to…

I wish one of these models was fine tuned for programming.

I want to be able to say things like "cd ~/projects" or "git push --force".

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