Speech recognition has quietly become powerful enough to replace much of our everyday typing, thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence. Yet many people still rely on keyboards because setting up these tools can be confusing.
Open-source AI models such as Nvidias Parakeet and OpenAIs Whisper have significantly improved the accuracy of turning spoken words into text. They handle punctuation and capitalization well and can run directly on a personal computer, avoiding the need for constant internet access.
Handy is a free desktop application designed to make these models easier to use. Created by developer CJ Pais after a finger injury left him temporarily unable to type, the app aims to provide a simple way to access high-quality speech-to-text without cost or technical complexity.
After downloading Handy for Windows, macOS, or Linux, users select which AI model they want to run. The app then configures the chosen model and assigns a keyboard shortcut, allowing speech-to-text transcription to be triggered quickly from anywhere on the system.