News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app.

Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by mrroryflint on Thursday January 15, 2026 @03:24AM (#46629690)
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.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by jborichevskiy on Thursday January 15, 2026 @03:27AM (#46629712)
Curious if you were using AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones for this?

If so, there should be "keep microphone on" or similar setting in the config that may help with this, alternatively, I set my microphone to my MacBook mic so that my headphones aren't involved at all and there is much less latency on activation

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by mrroryflint on Thursday January 15, 2026 @08:14AM (#46631990)
Airpods Max (is that the name?) - the big ones.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by jborichevskiy on Saturday January 17, 2026 @08:19AM (#46657838)
Makes sense. If you enable the Debug menu (Shift+CMD+D), there is an option for "Always-On Microphone". Might be worth a try to remove that latency.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by sipjca on Thursday January 15, 2026 @03:28AM (#46629723)
What microphone are you using?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by mrroryflint on Thursday January 15, 2026 @08:14AM (#46631988)
Airpods Max (is that the name?) - the big ones.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by sipjca on Thursday January 15, 2026 @07:16PM (#46641392)
Yeah like the other commenters mentioned, using Bluetooth devices does not work super well at the moment. Hopefully I’ll have a fix at some point. There’s just some time over bluetooth to negotiate the connection and everything, and the app doesn’t do a good job showing this at all right now

On a Mac I definitely recommend using the internal mic even if wearing airpods

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by mrroryflint on Tuesday January 20, 2026 @10:31AM (#46692836)
Thank you!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Handy – Free open source speech-to-text app by kuatroka on Thursday January 15, 2026 @04:22AM (#46630138)
Yes, I’ve got the same situation too. I kind of learned to wait for one or two seconds before talking. I am using it with the AirPods, so maybe it’s indeed the Bluetooth thing.
[ Parent | on HN ]