Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. 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. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Genio when university students recording and reviewing lectures matters most, and Handy when privacy-sensitive voice-to-text where audio must stay on-device matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students.
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.
Genio, formerly known as Glean, is an assistive note-taking platform that helps students capture and learn from lectures and classes. It records class audio and provides live captions during the session, then generates a full transcript afterward, letting students focus on understanding rather than frantically writing notes. Genio lets learners add their own notes, organize material with AI-generated outlines, import slides and reading material, and review with study features such as quizzing, tying recorded audio together with class content. The platform is widely used by students, including learners with specific learning difficulties, and is adopted by educational institutions that provide it as a study and accessibility support tool. It works online or offline across devices, which suits classroom and lecture-hall environments. Genio is positioned as a mainstream learning tool that also supports accessibility needs. It is actively operating in 2025 and 2026, reporting use by well over a hundred thousand students and more than a thousand institutions, with active sign-in, pricing, and ongoing product development. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
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
Genio 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 | Genio | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Class and lecture audio recording with live captions | Push-to-talk and toggle dictation modes with a configurable global keyboard shortcut |
| Standout feature | Full transcript generation after the session | Fully offline, on-device transcription with no cloud uploads |
| Team usage | AI outlines and student-added notes tied to the recording | Multiple local speech models including Whisper (GPU-accelerated) and Parakeet V3 (CPU, auto language detection) |
| Integrations | Import of slides and reading materials into notes | Silero Voice Activity Detection to filter silence and process only speech |
| Languages & capture | Offline and cross-device capture for classrooms | Automatically pastes transcribed text into any active application text field |
| Best-fit workflow | Class and lecture audio recording with live captions | Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Tauri |
Genio
Choose Genio if you need university students recording and reviewing lectures — strengths include purpose-built for education and lecture capture.
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.
Genio
Handy
It depends on your workflow. Genio is strong for university students recording and reviewing lectures, while Handy is strong for hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Genio 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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