Carbon Voice: Carbon Voice is an asynchronous voice-messaging app that automatically transcribes voice memos and uses AI to generate summaries, action items, and documents. Handy: Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Carbon Voice when replacing status meetings and calls with async voice messages that get auto-transcribed and summarized matters most, and Handy when privacy-sensitive voice-to-text where audio must stay on-device matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
Carbon Voice is an asynchronous voice-messaging app that automatically transcribes voice memos and uses AI to generate summaries, action items, and documents.
Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field.
Carbon Voice is an asynchronous voice-messaging and voice-notes app for iOS, Android, Web, and Apple Watch. Users record voice memos or messages with a single keystroke or swipe, and every message is automatically transcribed so it can be read, searched, labeled, and organized. The app is built around reducing real-time meetings and calls: instead of scheduling synchronous time, teammates exchange voice messages that the recipient can catch up on later. Layered on top is a large library of AI actions that turn raw voice into structured content — bulleted summaries, cleaned-up transcripts (removing filler words and fixing grammar), meeting notes, agendas, action items, professional emails, and longer documents such as PRDs and reports. Users can also query an AI assistant about any chat. A Global Voice feature can translate messages between languages, and messages can be sent to people who don't have the app via a secure email link. It is aimed at distributed teams, managers, and individuals who prefer talking over typing.
Best suited for
Handy is a free, open-source desktop application that turns your voice into text completely offline, with no audio ever leaving your computer. You press a configurable keyboard shortcut, speak, and release (push-to-talk), or use a toggle mode to start and stop; Handy transcribes what you said and automatically pastes the result into whatever text field is active. Because it runs entirely on-device, it is built for privacy-conscious users who want dictation without cloud uploads or subscriptions. Under the hood it is built with Tauri (a Rust backend with a React/TypeScript frontend) and supports multiple local speech-recognition models, including OpenAI's Whisper variants with GPU acceleration and the CPU-friendly Parakeet V3 model with automatic language detection. Silero Voice Activity Detection filters out silence so only speech is processed. Handy runs on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux, and is released under the MIT license. It positions itself as an accessible, extensible alternative to paid dictation tools, and is best suited for hands-free typing rather than recording multi-party meetings.
Best suited for
Carbon Voice is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Handy is open source (open source). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Carbon Voice | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Automatic transcription of every voice message, made searchable and organizable | Push-to-talk and toggle dictation modes with a configurable global keyboard shortcut |
| Standout feature | AI summaries, catch-ups, and action-item extraction from conversations | Fully offline, on-device transcription with no cloud uploads |
| Team usage | AI document generation (meeting notes, agendas, emails, PRDs, reports) from voice | Multiple local speech models including Whisper (GPU-accelerated) and Parakeet V3 (CPU, auto language detection) |
| Integrations | Transcript clean-up that removes filler words and corrects grammar | Silero Voice Activity Detection to filter silence and process only speech |
| Languages & capture | Cross-platform sync across iOS, Android, Web, and Apple Watch | Automatically pastes transcribed text into any active application text field |
| Best-fit workflow | Global Voice automatic translation between languages | Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Tauri |
Carbon Voice
Choose Carbon Voice if you need replacing status meetings and calls with async voice messages that get auto-transcribed and summarized — strengths include combines voice capture, automatic transcription, and a broad set of ai summarization/document actions in one app.
Handy
Choose Handy if you need hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors — strengths include completely free, open-source (mit) with no subscription or paywall.
Carbon Voice
Handy
It depends on your workflow. Carbon Voice is strong for replacing status meetings and calls with async voice messages that get auto-transcribed and summarized, while Handy is strong for hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Carbon Voice is a free tier with paid upgrades and Handy is open source. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Sure. Running both makes sense when their strengths don't overlap and the budget allows.
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