pick Simplified or Traditional Chinese, plus eleven fixes

Handy 0.9.8 is a bug fix release, and the notes say so in two words. It fixes eleven bugs, from filler words to keyboard shortcuts, and it adds one setting: whether Mandarin and Cantonese come out in Simplified or Traditional characters.

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release

0.9.8

pick Simplified or Traditional Chinese, plus eleven fixes

release notes: “bug fixes” · 7 first-time contributors

Recognition language and script are now separate choices. The language picks what the model listens for, and the new Chinese Script setting picks how the text is written. It covers the pasted text and the live preview. Mandarin converts with Taiwan's character tables, and Cantonese with Hong Kong's.

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added

choose the script Chinese is written in

Settings › Advanced › Transcription › Chinese Script

As Transcribed Simplified Traditional

我們今天下午一起去學校圖書館看書

↓ Simplified

我们今天下午一起去学校图书馆看书

Only output known to be Chinese gets converted. A Japanese transcript stays exactly as it was, even though it shares characters with Chinese. On auto detect, Handy reads the language from the text, and the live preview waits for six characters before it decides. Cantonese gets the Hong Kong forms of characters.

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added

only text known to be Chinese is converted

Japanese

学校に行きます

left exactly as transcribed

Cantonese, Traditional

里面 → 裏面

Hong Kong form; Taiwan writes 裡

on auto-detect, the language is read from the text; the live preview waits for 6 characters

Your language setting migrates by itself. If your language was Chinese Simplified or Chinese Traditional, you'll now see Chinese Mandarin, with the matching script in the new setting. Everyone else keeps the output they had. A fresh install picks the script from your system locale.

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changed

the Simplified and Traditional language entries moved into the new setting

language in 0.9.7

language + Chinese Script in 0.9.8

Chinese (Simplified)

→

Chinese (Mandarin) + Simplified

Chinese (Traditional)

→

Chinese (Mandarin) + Traditional

any other language

→

unchanged + As Transcribed

fresh install

→

script follows your system locale

Filler word removal got two fixes. When a sentence opened with um or uh, removing it left the sentence starting in lower case. Now the capital moves to the word that takes its place. And ha is off the English filler list, so it stays in your text.

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fixed

removing a filler word keeps the sentence's capital

you say: “Uhm, so I was, uh, thinking about this”

0.9.7 so I was, thinking about this

0.9.8 So I was, thinking about this

“ha” is no longer removed as an English filler word

Three fixes land around recording. If no model can transcribe, Handy no longer opens the mic. If it's set to unload the model right away, a recording with no audio now unloads it too. And after a very short recording, the cancel shortcut no longer stays registered.

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fixed

handy won't open the mic when no model can transcribe it

no model, no recording

the mic stays closed, and the model load reports why

empty recordings unload

set to unload right away, a recording with no audio now unloads the model too

cancel lets go

after a very short recording, the cancel shortcut no longer stays registered

Shortcuts got stricter, and more of them work. Keys with two word names, like Caps Lock and Page Up, were saved with a space that the shortcut parsers reject. Now they're saved as one word. And a shortcut the Tauri backend can't parse, like one using the left Option key, resets to the default.

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fixed

shortcuts with Caps Lock, Page Up or Print Screen now register

Caps Lock

caps lock capslock

Page Up

page up pageup

Print Screen

print screen printscreen

Num Lock

num lock numlock

a shortcut the Tauri backend can't parse, like option_left+space, resets to the default

A few smaller fixes. History only says copied once the copy actually worked. Settings sections open at the top. Listing GPU devices moved off the startup path, where on a Mac it could trigger a one-time shader compile. And if the recording overlay is empty on Hyprland or Omarchy, the readme now has a Wayland workaround for native installs.

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also fixed

smaller fixes, and a workaround for Hyprland

history says “copied” only after the copy works

settings scroll to the top on each section

startup lists GPU devices in the background

empty recording overlay on Hyprland or Omarchy?

env -u HANDY_NO_GTK_LAYER_SHELL GDK_BACKEND=wayland handy

native installs only; the 0.9.6 AppImage forces X11

For most people, updating to 0.9.8 needs nothing else. If you transcribe Chinese, check the new script setting under Advanced. If you use the Tauri keyboard option with a left or right modifier in your shortcut, it resets to the default, so set a new one. That's 0.9.8: your pick of Chinese script, and eleven fixes.

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update to 0.9.8

transcribe Chinese? check Advanced › Chinese Script

Tauri keyboard with a left- or right-only modifier? that shortcut resets to the default

everyone else: nothing to change