Hex

For MacOS I haven’t seen any STT app that has faster transcription than Hex (with Parakeet V3), which leverages Apple silicon + FluidAudio: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex This is now my standard way to speak to coding agents. I used to use Handy but Hex is even faster. Last I checked, Handy has stuttering issues but Hex doesn’t.

Was a big fan of Handy until I found Hex, which, incredibly, has even faster transcription (with Parakeet V3), it’s MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex

Big fan of handy and it’s cross platform as well. Parakeet V3 gives the best experience with very fast and accurate-enough transcriptions when talking to AIs that can read between the lines. It does have stuttering issues though. My primary use of these is when talking to coding agents. But a few weeks ago someone on HN pointed me to Hex, which also supports Parakeet-V3 , and incredibly enough, is even faster than Handy because it’s a native MacOS-only app that leverages CoreML/Neural Engine for extremely quick transcriptions. Long ramblings transcribed in under a second! It’s now my favorite fully local STT for MacOS: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex

i've used macwhisper (paid), superwhisper (paid), and handy (free) but now prefer hex (free): https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex for me it strikes the balance of good, fast, and cheap for everyday transcription. macwhisper is overkill, superwhisper too clever, and handy too buggy. hex fits just right for me (so far)

It's amazing how good open-weight STT and TTS have gotten, so there's no need to pay for Wispr Flow, Superwhisper, Eleven-Labs etc. Sharing my setup in case it may be useful for others; it's especially useful when working with CLI agents like Code Code or Codex-CLI: STT: Hex [1] (open-source), with Parakeet V3 - stunningly fast, near-instant transcription. The slight accuracy drop relative to bigger models is immaterial when you're talking to an AI. I always ask it to restate back to me what it understood, and it gives back a nicely structured version -- this helps confirm understanding as well as likely helps the CLI agent stay on track. It is a MacOS native app and leverages the CoreML/Neural Engine to get extremely fast transcription (I used to recommend a similar app Handy but it has frequent stuttering issues, and Hex is actually eve

Hex is my new favorite STT on MacOS. Also uses Parakeet V3. I didn't think it could possibly be faster than Handy, but it is much faster - even long ramblings transcribed within a second. It's MacOS only, leverages the CoreML / Apple Neural Engine. https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Also the transcriptions with hex don't seem to suffer from some of the issues with Handy, such as stutter.

Have you tried Hex? https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Faster than handy and uses way less memory.