33rd of 67 in VoiceFor voice, speech and music
handy
Offline push-to-talk dictation app that pastes transcripts into any text field
- Stars
- 36.1k
- License
- MIT
- Last commit
- Oct 2026
- Last release
- Oct 2026
- Language
- Rust
20,015 on 10 Apr 202636,146 on 30 Oct 2026
From GitHub's daily star counts.
Checked on GitHub.
Overview
Handy is a cross-platform desktop app (Rust, Tauri) for local speech-to-text. Hold or toggle a global shortcut, speak, and the transcript is pasted into the focused app. Silero VAD filters silence, and transcription runs locally on Whisper models (Small, Medium, Turbo, Large) or Parakeet, with no audio sent to the cloud.
Who it is for: Desktop users who want private, local dictation into any app
Ranked among open-source alternatives to ElevenLabs (#3 of 10) and Otter.ai (#3 of 10).
Strengths
- Runs fully offline on Windows, macOS and Linux with Whisper or Parakeet models
- Hold-to-talk or toggle shortcuts, plus CLI flags and signals for remote control
- Accepts custom Whisper GGML models and manually downloaded GGUF files
- Release artifacts are signed, with documented minisign verification steps
Weaknesses
- Linux Wayland support is limited and needs wtype, dotool or ydotool for text input
- Clipboard paste can insert stale clipboard content; Reliable Paste is still experimental
- fn/Globe key shortcuts work only on Apple keyboards on macOS
- Model downloads are large, from 487 MB to 1.6 GB for Whisper variants
What it needs
- GPU optional
- Needs xdotool (X11), wtype or dotool (Wayland), libgtk-layer-shell (Linux)
- Models: Whisper GGML (.bin), Parakeet (GGUF), Silero VAD
Quick answers
Is handy open source?
Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the MIT license.
Does handy need a GPU?
No. It runs on a CPU and can use a GPU when you have one.
Head to head
Also in Voice
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|---|---|---|
| 1 | voicestudioDesktop app for voice cloning, dubbing, dictation and audiobooks | 97 out of 100 |
| 2 | whisper.cppC/C++ port of OpenAI Whisper for local speech-to-text transcription | 89 out of 100 |
| #4 | xiaozhi-esp32ESP32 firmware for a voice chatbot with MCP device and cloud tool control | 82 out of 100 |
| #5 | buzzOffline desktop app for transcribing and translating audio with Whisper | 81 out of 100 |
| #6 | agentsPython framework for realtime voice and multimodal agents on LiveKit WebRTC | 79 out of 100 |