Handy - Best cross platform Dictation app (Free)

Context

Around 2016, I explored various speech-to-text (STT) tools to reduce strain on writs due to RSI(Repetetive Strain Injury) and gave up on them due to their limitations.

With AI advancements, these tools have come a long way.

Open Source STT Tools

Handy

TypeWhisper

FluidVoice

HyperWhisper

VoiceInk

There are couple of paid tools but they didn't work well in noisy environment.

After trying out all these tools with local models like Parakeet, Voxstral, and Cohere Transcribe, I found that Handy + Cohere Transcribe is the best combination for my needs.

Handy has post processing as an experimental feature where we can send output of STT to other LLM models and get a fine grained output.

For example, when I dictate "git push dash dash force", the output is "git push --force" after post processing.

Conclusion

I let AI to write handy_stats.py script to track my dictation stats. I am dictating more than 10K characters per day which reduces strain on my fingers/writs.