No longer open source?

[northoperator]

Last release on github was v2.9, over 6 months ago, yet latest version in the app is v3.4
Git repo looks dead
No code changes in Git for 7 months

Is this secretly a closed source pretending to be opensource / free?
Why does the app need to show up in the Mac Cmd+Tab switcher to work?
Why does it ask for Google login?
I was lowkey excited for this project, but idk now, this is sketchy

[Korayem]

...and the website show onit for "voice dictation" alternative to whisper. what's happening?

[timlenardo]

Hi @northoperator - yes, that's correct. We've pivoted from a AI Chat sidebar (this repository) to a dictation app (closed source, different repository). We hadn't deleted this repository because, frankly, well, we hadn't thought too much about it. We're a small team and building the dictation app is already all-consuming.

Is this secretly a closed source pretending to be opensource / free?

Onit Dictate is free, but is not open-source. We’re not trying to pretend. if it was confusing to you, there’s work to do. I don’t want to delete this repository, since it’s already open source and (hopefully) useful. I also don’t want to rebrand the dictation app because we’ve built brand equity around “Onit,” and we like the name.

Here's what I'll do:

• I'll rename this repo to “Onit Sidepanel (legacy)” or something similar
• I'll add a note in the README that the Dictate code isn’t here
• I’ll update the GitHub link on our website to point to the main synth‑inc profile instead of this one.

Would that clear things up for you? Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Why does the app need to show up in the Mac Cmd+Tab switcher to work?

It doesn't! There's a "hide dock icon" toggle in settings. Turn that on, and it will not show up in the CMD+Tab switcher.

Why does it ask for Google login?

Login prevents trial abuse, which matters for QuickEdit and Sidekick. We could drop it for Dictate, but tracking authenticated versus unauthenticated users is a huge hassle and invariably breaks things. I’d rather spend our limited engineering resources on improving transcription quality.