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What's new in 0.8.5
New: cleanup styling per app. S1-mini dictation cleanup can now use a
different style depending on where you're dictating: casual in Slack, formal
in your email client, and the usual style everywhere else. Add rules in
Settings → Post-Processing → Styling per app. Detect app gives you
three seconds to click into the app you want, then adds it for you. The
focused app is read from its window class on X11, Hyprland, Sway and KDE
(with kdotool installed), and from its program name on Windows. GNOME
can't report it, so the usual style always applies there.
New: dictation history. The new History window, opened from the
tray menu, lists what you've dictated recently, newest first. You can search
it, then copy an entry, type it again into the window you were using, read it
aloud (with a progress indicator while the voice loads), send it to any
output target, or delete it. History is private by default: it's kept in
memory only, it holds at most 50 dictations from the last 24 hours (both
adjustable), and it's gone when VoxCtrl quits.
Keeping history between restarts is optional, and encrypted. Turn on
Keep history between restarts and the history is saved encrypted. The key
lives in your desktop keyring (KWallet or GNOME Keyring), or is protected by
Windows data protection on Windows, so another program that copies the file
can't read it. If no keyring is available, VoxCtrl won't save the history
unencrypted; it keeps it in memory only and shows why. Turning the setting
off deletes the file and the key.
New: "Don't keep in history" per target. Tick it on any output target,
in the target editor under Privacy, for dictation you'd rather not have kept,
such as a password manager or a private chat.
New MCP tools. set_target lets an MCP client choose which output target
dictation goes to. get_recent_transcripts lets it read recent dictations,
but only after you turn on Let MCP clients read recent dictations in the
History window's privacy settings, which is off by default.
Changed: the MCP socket moved to your private runtime folder
($XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/voxctrl-mcp.sock). In the shared /tmp, another account
on the computer could claim the name first and pose as VoxCtrl.
/tmp/voxctrl-mcp.sock still works, as a link to the new location, so
existing MCP client setups need no changes.
Fixed: transcripts in the log. VoxCtrl logged the full text of every
transcription and of text sent to text-to-speech, and that log can end up in
the system journal. It now logs only word and character counts.
Changed: bug reports go to GitHub only. The Email it option is gone
from Settings → Bug Report. Reports are sent through Send report, or with
Open on GitHub, or saved or copied to paste into a GitHub issue. The setup
wizard's "Email us the log" is now Report it on GitHub: it copies the log
and opens a new GitHub issue for you to paste it into.
Downloads
Pick the build for your platform and GPU:
| Platform | File suffix | GPU required |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | -linux-x86_64-vulkan.AppImage |
None — GPU used if present |
| Linux (newer distros) | -linux-x86_64-vulkan-webgpu.AppImage |
None — GPU used if present; also accelerates Moonshine and Parakeet. Needs glibc 2.38+ (Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 39, Debian 13, Arch and similar) |
| Windows | -windows-x86_64-webgpu.exe |
None — GPU used if present |
There is one Windows build. It accelerates the Moonshine and
Parakeet speech engines on any Direct3D 12 GPU — NVIDIA, AMD or
Intel — through ONNX Runtime's WebGPU provider, and runs on the CPU
when no usable GPU is found, so it replaces the separate CPU
installer rather than sitting beside it. Each engine has its own
GPU acceleration checkbox in Settings → Engine, and the chip
beside the engine's name says which device it is using. Whisper.cpp still runs on the CPU on Windows either
way, because its only GPU path here is ggml's Vulkan backend, which
does not register on Windows MSVC static builds. If your GPU is not
usable the app says so in the log and falls back to the CPU rather
than pretending. If you were running the separate CPU installer,
VoxCtrl's own updater will move you onto this one; nothing to do.
Linux has two builds. The Vulkan AppImage accelerates
any NVIDIA/AMD/Intel GPU through the host Vulkan driver and runs on
the CPU when there is no Vulkan device, so it replaces the separate
CPU AppImage rather than sitting beside it — the same file is right
whether or not you have a GPU. The Vulkan + WebGPU AppImage is the same
app plus GPU acceleration for Moonshine and Parakeet; it bundles Dawn, which
needs glibc 2.38 or newer, so it will not start on Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12 —
use the plain Vulkan AppImage there. VoxCtrl's updater keeps each install on
the variant it is running. If you were running the old CPU AppImage, the
updater moves you onto the Vulkan one; nothing to do.
To keep an engine on the CPU regardless, untick GPU acceleration for it
in Settings → Engine. Worth doing if your only Vulkan device is a software
rasterizer such as Mesa's lavapipe, which is slower than the CPU
backend.
The Linux .deb now requires libvulkan1, which the package
manager pulls in for you.
The Windows build is an NSIS installer, not code-signed yet, so
SmartScreen will warn that the publisher is unknown: choose
More info → Run anyway.
Windows — first run
Windows 10 21H2 or newer, or Windows 11. Everything VoxCtrl needs is
in the installer; WebView2 ships with Windows 11 and the installer
fetches it on older builds.
Two things are worth knowing before the first dictation:
- Microphone access. Windows denies it silently. If dictation
produces nothing, check Settings → Privacy & security →
Microphone and allow desktop apps. - Global shortcuts arrive through a Windows keyboard hook, so
every gesture works — but Windows does not deliver keys to it
while an elevated application has focus, or on the UAC prompt and
lock screen. Shortcuts do not fire there, and dictated text cannot
be typed into an elevated window unless VoxCtrl is elevated too.
Linux — first run
The Vulkan AppImage needs glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04+, Linux Mint 21+,
Debian 12+, Fedora 36+, Arch); the Vulkan + WebGPU one needs 2.38 or newer.
Nothing has to be installed first — not even libfuse2.
# The file you downloaded: -vulkan.AppImage or -vulkan-webgpu.AppImage
APP=./VoxCtrl-linux-x86_64-vulkan.AppImage
chmod +x "$APP"
# Optional: installs the desktop entry and text-injection helpers.
# Global shortcuts need no permissions — your desktop handles them.
"$APP" --install
# Launch the application
"$APP"What's Changed
Full Changelog: v0.8.4...v0.8.5
