Aside 0.4.1

Fixes Right Option dictation failing to start on some Macs, including the macOS 27 machine where the issue was reported.

Aside now uses the key state carried by each modifier event instead of checking a separate, potentially different keyboard state later. Right Option release is still detected correctly when Left Option remains held.

This is a Mac-only patch release. The iOS version is unchanged.

Install with Aside → Check for Updates, or download Aside-0.4.1.zip below. The Mac app is Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple.

Validation: 85 Mac/shared tests passed, including the captured Right Option press/release regression and left/right Option discrimination; 3 opt-in model integration tests were skipped. The fix was merged into main before the release build. A physical check on the affected laptop remains the final confirmation.

Source: #4

Aside 0.4.0

Aside 0.4.0 improves dictation reliability and makes iPhone sessions easier to use.

• Preserve raw transcripts when cleanup fails, with retry support on Mac and iPhone.
• Prevent cancelled or older recordings from interfering with newer dictations.
• Renew iPhone sessions during use, detect stale sessions, and fix keyboard timeouts.
• Start recording automatically when the keyboard opens Aside; return to the keyboard to stop and insert.
• Add iOS 26 Lock Screen and Dynamic Island recording controls.
• Keep provider URLs and models scoped to each provider.
• Move history writes off the main thread and reduce audio capture allocations.

Mac: download Aside-0.4.0.zip, or use Check for Updates in Aside. The Mac build is Developer ID signed and notarized.
iPhone: version 0.4.0, build 12 is uploaded separately to App Store Connect for TestFlight processing.

Verification: 85 Mac/shared tests passed, 3 opt-in model tests skipped; 41 Worker tests and TypeScript checking passed; all iOS targets compiled. Bluetooth interruption and Live Activity behavior still require hands-on device validation.

The iOS keyboard still needs Aside to open the microphone. A cold start opens the app; return using the iOS breadcrumb.

Aside 0.3.6

Press Escape at any point before the text is pasted to cancel a dictation and throw it away. Works while holding Right Option, while latched hands-free, and while transcribing.

Aside 0.3.5

Keeps the last words of a dictation. On-device transcription now runs over the whole recording (the streaming decoder was dropping words at every 11-second seam and garbling the ending), and recording continues for 400 ms after the key comes up so the end of the last word is captured.

Aside 0.3.4

Aside 0.3.4 for Mac

• Cleanup writes spoken contractions as proper English ("gonna" becomes "going to", and the like) without rewording anything else, and never produces an em dash; any that slip through become a comma.

Aside 0.3.3

Aside 0.3.3 for Mac

• Disconnecting a Bluetooth headset between dictations no longer leaves every recording failing with "Could not start the microphone" (audio error -10868). The microphone tap now uses the hardware's current format instead of one cached from the previous device.

Aside 0.3.2

Aside 0.3.2 for Mac

• Settings > Microphone: pick the input Aside records from. With AirPods as the system default, macOS switches them to the phone-call profile on every dictation, which delayed the start by a second or two and, on some Macs, crashed the app (issue #2). Choosing the Mac's own microphone keeps AirPods on their music profile and starts instantly.
• Letting go of the key before the microphone was ready now says so instead of silently dismissing.
• Includes the 0.3.1 fixes: the hotkey can no longer abort in the audio framework, and the audio engine runs off the main thread.

Aside 0.3.1

Aside 0.3.1 for Mac

• The record hotkey can no longer abort the app when the input device is switching (issue #2): the microphone tap takes the device's format at install time, and an audio-framework exception now fails the recording with its reason logged instead of crashing.
• The audio engine starts and stops on its own queue, so a slow coreaudiod no longer freezes the menu bar or the key-up handler. If the microphone takes more than a moment, the overlay says so.
• The dictionary is listed alphabetically.

Aside 0.3.0

Aside 0.3.0

A quick tap of Right Option now keeps listening until you tap again; holding still works as before. A new "quick tap" setting brings back the double-tap gesture or a hold-only mode. Anyone who had switched the double-tap off gets hold-only.

Also includes the 0.2.3 fix for a crash when a discarded tap stopped the microphone.

Aside 0.2.3

Aside 0.2.3

Fixes a crash when a quick tap of Right Option was discarded: the audio engine was stopped within half a second of starting and CoreAudio faulted on its IO thread. The engine now winds down a moment after a dictation ends instead of synchronously; the microphone indicator may linger up to a second after a discarded tap.