FR: Allow right-command as a trigger hotkey, to fire on keyUp event when activated by itself (not in combination with another key)

[luckman212]

⬅️ moved over from cjpais/Handy#898

---

Description

I had mentioned it briefly in the "Have ideas for a shortcut" discussion

I'm using Right Command as my shortcut key (not PTT mode)

Right now, recording starts immediately on keyDown - it should really be on keyUp when not in PTT mode. Also, the recording should get triggered if and only if the hotkey is pressed by itself, and not as part of a more complex key combo. E.g. if the hotkey is Right Command it should fire on keyUp of right-command BY ITSELF, not if right-command+P (print) is pressed.

As is, the user cannot e.g. press ⌘p for "print", ⌘m for "minimize window" etc without also (unwantedly) triggering Handy.

Rationale

Apple themselves offer using Right-Command as a trigger key for their native builtin Dictation feature on macOS:

System Information

App Version:

0.7.9

Operating System:

macOS 26.3

CPU:

Apple M4

[luckman212]

To be clear I am not asking for a "tap twice" trigger, just a tap once would be great. The FR is for

• activate on keyUp
• do not activate if another key is pressed while the original modifier is still down (chord)

[gethubb]

Thanks for moving this over. I use the right Option key on an external keyboard to trigger dictation, but I also sometimes use right Option as a chord—becoming Option+Spacebar—to trigger Alfred.

At first I believed I could deprecate my BetterTouchTool workaround for single-key activation. I set the BTT trigger to require key-up, allowing me to use the key in a chord with no impact. I soon found Handy triggers on key-down (sensible for many, shave a few ms?).

So, back to the workaround! When I release my right Option key, BetterTouchTool executes handy --toggle-transcription * and transcription begins instantly. I use Control+Option+Command+Spacebar in Handy, by the way, and on rare occasion end up using that too.

So I'm very pleased thanks to the Handy CLI, but I support the option to trigger on release.

btw: huge shout-out to the team! You & NVIDIA put a lotta power into a lotta hands!

• actually:
  /Applications/Handy.app/Contents/MacOS/Handy --toggle-transcription