May 23rd, 2026
v0.4.0 — Vowen Pro
The biggest release yet. Vowen Pro launches with cross-device sync, chat with notes, automatic meeting detection, custom utilities, workflows with webhooks/scripts and a lot more, all built from feedback in this community.
New
Cross-Device Sync (Pro) — Keep your settings, snippets, transcriptions, and notes in sync across machines via iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
Chat with Notes & Transcriptions (Pro) — Ask follow-up questions on any meeting note or transcript. Vowen reads the full context so answers stay grounded.
Bring Your Own AI Provider (Pro) — Plug in any OpenAI-compatible API for transcription, notes, tones, chat, and workflows — not just the defaults.
Auto-Translate to English (Pro) — Speak in any language and Vowen delivers the output in clean English automatically — no extra step.
Automatic Meeting Detection (Pro · macOS) — Vowen detects when you're in a Meet, Zoom, or Teams call and surfaces meeting controls instantly.
Custom Utilities (Pro) — Build your own AI shortcuts — translators, summarizers, formatters — and bind them to a hotkey or command-mode trigger.
Webhooks & Scripts in Workflows (Pro) — Fire a webhook or run a script when a transcription completes. Pipe Vowen into anything in your stack.
Rich-Text Expansions — Expansions now support bold, italic, and links — plus multiple output formats: plain text, markdown, and HTML.
Auto-Add Corrections to Dictionary (Pro · macOS · beta) — Vowen quietly watches the edits you make to transcripts and learns your vocabulary corrections on its own.
File Transcription Queue (Pro) — Drop audio files into a queue and let Vowen process them in the background, with progress tracking and notifications.
Obsidian Integration (Pro) — Export meeting notes and transcriptions directly into your Obsidian vault.
gpt-4o-transcribe Support — OpenAI's newest transcription model is now available as a cloud option alongside Whisper and Soniox.
UK English Dictation — Real-time American → British spelling conversion with a 1,700+ word dictionary, applied as you dictate.
Cancel Transcriptions Mid-Flight — Abort a command-mode run or a regular transcription before it pastes.
Switch Models From the Banner — Provider chips in the recording banner let you change models without opening Settings.
License Key Activation — Activate Vowen Pro on up to 3 devices per license — manage your devices from Account settings.
Works Across Any Keyboard Layout — Hotkeys and expansions now adapt to your physical keyboard — AZERTY, QWERTZ, Dvorak, and beyond.
Revamped Onboarding Flow — A redesigned onboarding walk-through introduces new users to setup, hotkeys, and Pro features.
Share Insights Card — Generate a shareable card highlighting your transcription stats and milestones.
Confirmation Before Device Deactivation — Vowen now asks before deactivating a device from your Pro license.
Improved
Smoother Meeting Notes — Notes generate in the background while you keep recording. Skeleton loaders and a tray indicator show progress.
Faster AI Responses — AI responses now stream over SSE end-to-end instead of plain HTTP — noticeably snappier across the app.
Parakeet Is the New Default Local Model — Faster on-device transcription, with periodic warmups so the very first run is instant.
Redesigned Notes & Transcription Pages — Cleaner detail-page layouts for both meeting notes and transcriptions, with a more focused reading experience.
Mute Before Recording (Pro) — Vowen briefly mutes input before recording starts so stray audio (e.g. the tail of a video) doesn't bleed into your first words.
Microphone Connecting Indicator — A clear loading state shows when the mic is still coming online.
Meeting Detection Survives Sleep & Power Events (macOS) — Detection automatically resumes after sleep, lid-close, or AC plug/unplug.
Sensible Templates for Custom Utilities — Starter templates so you're not staring at a blank box when you create a new utility.
Tones Respect Auto-Translate (Pro) — Tone profiles now honor your auto-translate-to-English setting.
Focus Vowen On Gated Features — Clicking a Pro-gated feature now brings Vowen to the foreground so the upgrade prompt is visible.
Faster & Cheaper AI Calls — Reduced default prompt size and enabled prompt caching — lower cost and less rate-limit pressure for AI features.
Cleaner Obsidian Note Titles — Notes synced to Obsidian no longer prepend the date in the title.
Fixed
Modals Closing on Drag Release — Fixed all modals (including Edit Expansion) closing when a text-selection drag ended on the overlay.
Meeting Detection Swallowing Esc (macOS) — Fixed Esc key being captured by meeting detection instead of reaching the app.
Custom API Toolbar — Fixed toolbar issues when using a custom OpenAI-compatible API.
Failed Transcription Border — Fixed visual border issue on failed transcription entries in the list.
Emojis & Serialization in Notes — Fixed emoji handling and serialization errors that could break note rendering.
Deadlock on Power Resume — Fixed a rare deadlock that could occur when the system resumed from sleep.
Tones on Windows (Windows) — Fixed tone profiles not applying correctly on Windows.
HTTP Fallback on ECONNRESET — SSE streams now gracefully fall back to HTTP when the connection is reset by the server.
Speaker Labels Missing From PDF Exports — Speaker labels now appear correctly in PDF exports.
Expansions on Certain Keyboard Layouts (Windows) — Fixed expansions not firing on certain keyboard layouts on Windows.
Recording Banner From Inside Vowen — Fixed the recording banner appearing when recording from within Vowen itself.
macOS Accessibility Re-Prompt (macOS) — Vowen now re-prompts for accessibility permissions correctly after they're revoked.
Windows SVG Asset Build (Windows) — Fixed Windows build issues affecting SVG assets.
Silence-Detection Sensitivity Clamp — Clamped enhanced silence-detection sensitivity to a maximum of 5 to prevent overly aggressive cutoffs.
v0.4.1
A short follow-up to v0.4.0.
Fixed
OpenAI Reasoning Effort — Reasoning effort is now correctly applied for OpenAI models that support it (o-series).
v0.4.2
Speaker diarization expands to on-device Parakeet, and notes/expansions get a proper rich-text editor.
New
Speaker Diarization with Parakeet (Pro) — Speaker labels for transcripts and meeting notes are now available with the on-device Parakeet model, so you can diarize without sending audio to the cloud.
Advanced WYSIWYG Rich-Text Editor — A new rich-text editor for notes and expansions with bold, italic, lists, headings, links, and more.
v0.4.3
Big release for meetings and transcripts — Speaker diarization with Whisper, audio waveforms, a real-time meeting note preview, and a long list of polish + fixes across the app.
New
Audio Waveform on Meeting Notes — Meeting notes now show a scrubbable audio waveform. The transcript scrolls and highlights in sync as audio plays, so you can jump to any moment in the conversation by clicking the waveform.
Real-Time Transcription Preview for Meeting Notes (Pro · experimental) — See your meeting note transcription appear live as the recording runs, so you don't have to wait for the session to end.
Speaker Diarization with Whisper (Pro · macOS) — Whisper models can now label speakers using Pyannote, in addition to Parakeet diarization that shipped in v0.4.2.
Parakeet Japanese & CTC-Mandarin — Two new on-device Parakeet models for Japanese and Mandarin transcription.
Reassign Speaker Labels (Pro) — Rename and merge speakers across a meeting note or transcript with a single edit. Changes apply to the whole transcript at once.
Double-Tap Hotkey Transitions — Trigger start/stop actions by double-tapping supported hotkeys, with new lock-in semantics for hands-free recording.
On-Demand Webhook From Note Details (Pro) — Fire a configured webhook directly from a meeting note's detail page, no workflow trigger needed.
Export All Notes as ZIP (Pro) — One-click bulk export of every meeting note as a single ZIP archive (audio + transcript + summary).
Movable Meeting Notes Recording Indicator — Drag the recording indicator anywhere on screen and Vowen remembers the position across sessions.
Improved
Custom Instructions for AI Enhancement is now free for everyone — Previously a Pro feature; now available on every tier.
Audio Waveforms on Manual Transcriptions — The same waveform UI now applies to manual transcriptions, not just meeting notes.
Real Speaker Names in Note Summaries — Summaries reference actual speakers instead of generic "Speaker 1" placeholders.
Sticky Navbar on Detail Pages — Top navigation stays in view while scrolling notes and transcription detail pages.
Expansions & Custom Utilities in Import/Export (Pro) — Your expansions and custom utilities are now included when you back up or restore Vowen data.
More Hotkey Keys Supported — Expanded the set of keys you can bind to shortcuts and double-tap triggers (PageUp/PageDown, Home/End, and more).
Updated AI Model Lineup — Refreshed the list of available AI enhancement models with the latest releases from OpenAI and Gemini.
Fixed
Workflow Query Prefix — "Google Formule 1" no longer becomes "e Formule 1" in the search. A stray leading "e " is now stripped from extracted queries.
Windows Audio Playback — Fixed audio waveform/player failing to load on Windows because of a path-encoding bug.
Mistral Context Bias — Context bias now applies correctly to Mistral transcriptions; vocabulary terms are validated and deduped before the API call.
Double-Tap Misfire — Fixed an edge case where double-tap could trigger unintentionally.
Default State on Detail Pages — Meeting notes and transcription detail pages no longer load with the wrong default selections after IPC hydration races.
Note Import Failure — Fixed an error when importing notes (especially MP3/M4A/MP4) by routing them through ffmpeg conversion.
Recording Indicator Position — The meeting-notes recording indicator now reasserts its position more reliably across screen changes and after sleep/wake on Windows.
May 6th, 2026
This update introduces Expansions — a system-wide text expander built right into Vowen — along with Tones on Windows, dynamic AI model updates, resource efficient mode for local Whisper, and several quality-of-life improvements.
New Features
Expansions: Type a shortcut like
:dateor:timeanywhere on your system and it instantly expands into the full text. Create your own custom expansions for emails, addresses, signatures, or anything you type often. Includes a guided tutorial to get started and built-in expansions out of the box.Tones on Windows: Tone profiles are now fully supported on Windows — customize how your transcriptions sound across different contexts, just like on macOS.
Dynamic AI Models: Available AI models are now fetched from the server, so new models appear automatically without requiring an app update.
Resource Efficient Mode: Use local Whisper models without keeping the server running in the background. The transcription server starts on demand and shuts down after, saving system resources.
Improvements
Command Mode Confirmation: Command mode now shows a confirmation banner before pasting, letting you review, copy, or cancel the result.
Workflow Trigger Phrases: Workflows now use trigger phrases directly instead of separate names, making them simpler to set up.
Keyboard Hook Stability: Improved reliability of global keyboard shortcuts, including guardrails against suppressing system shortcuts and better handling of overlapping hotkeys.
Filler Word Removal: Filler word stripping no longer removes newlines and text formatting from transcriptions.
Custom Instructions UX: Added discard banners and a confirmation modal when clearing custom instructions, so you don't lose work accidentally.
Built-in App Shortcuts: Built-in apps like Browser and Finder are now included in the app selection dropdown for workflows and expansions.
Fixes
Fixed forward/back mouse button hotkeys not registering correctly
Fixed provider logos not displaying properly in dark mode
Fixed bottom positioning for command mode recording indicator
Fixed enter key accidentally closing modals
April 26th, 2026
Release Date: April 27th, 2026
v0.2.7 is a big one — four new provider integrations, native text selection on both macOS and Windows, undo cancellation, export support for manual transcriptions, and a long list of quality-of-life improvements.
New Features
xAI Transcription Real-time streaming and batch transcription powered by xAI Aurora. Supports full speaker diarization and 25 languages. Connect your xAI API key in Speech Models to get started.
Speechmatics Transcription Real-time and batch transcription via Speechmatics with speaker diarization and support for 50+ languages. Auto-detect is available for batch transcription; real-time requires a language to be selected.
Cerebras AI Enhancement Connect Cerebras for fast AI-powered transcription enhancement. Supports Llama 3.1 8B and Qwen 3 235B models via the official Cerebras SDK.
AWS Bedrock AI Enhancement Use AWS Bedrock foundation models for AI enhancement. Vowen dynamically discovers available models in your region — just provide a bearer token and region.
Undo Cancellation Accidentally cancelled a recording? Hit Undo within 5 seconds to resume right where you left off. Your audio buffer is preserved, so nothing is lost.
Export Manual Transcriptions Export manual transcriptions to TXT, PDF directly from the transcription detail page. Speaker labels and timestamps are preserved in exports.
Language Selection in Modals Choose the transcription language directly inside the Notes and Manual Transcribe modals. The language list updates dynamically based on the selected model.
Start Minimized to Tray (Windows) Launch Vowen straight to the system tray on startup. Access it anytime from the tray icon without it taking up space on the taskbar.
OpenAI Responses API Format Custom API servers using OpenAI's newer "responses" format are now auto-detected and fully supported alongside the standard chat completions format.
Improvements
Native Text Selection (macOS) Selected text is now read using the native Accessibility API instead of clipboard manipulation. Your clipboard is never touched during text selection, eliminating clipboard corruption.
Native Text Selection (Windows) Selected text is now read using the native UI Automation API instead of clipboard manipulation. Supports modern controls including Edge and other TextPattern2-compatible apps.
Reliable Long Text Insertion (macOS) Long transcriptions are now chunked at sentence boundaries before being inserted. A small delay between chunks prevents macOS from delivering keyboard events out of order — no more jumbled paragraphs.
Sleep Prevention During Notes (macOS) Your Mac will no longer go to sleep while a meeting notes session is in progress. The blocker is released when notes stop, and locking the screen won't interrupt your session.
Notes Summary Language Meeting note summaries are now generated in the same language as the meeting content, instead of defaulting to English. Works across segment summaries, final summaries, and full meeting notes.
Vocabulary for More Providers Custom vocabulary terms are now sent to ElevenLabs (keyterms), Mistral (contextBias), and Sarvam (prompt) for better recognition of domain-specific names and jargon.
Transcript Editor Performance Editing long transcripts is now significantly faster. Text areas are memoized and only the changed segment is resized, reducing layout thrashing during editing.
Streamlined Modals The Notes, Transcribe, and Import modals have been redesigned with portal-based dropdowns, provider sublabels, and a cleaner visual layout.
Tone Disconnection Warning When disconnecting a model that's currently used by one or more tone profiles, you'll now see a warning listing the affected tones.
Dismiss AI Error Banner AI enhancement error notifications can now be dismissed for one hour using the "Hide 1hr" button, so repeated errors don't interrupt your workflow.
Local API Servers Without Keys Custom and local API servers no longer require an API key. If you're running a local setup, just providing a base URL is enough.
Fixes
Fixed speaker labels not getting saved when the transcript was edited at the same time
Fixed a bug that prevented retrying a failed transcription from working correctly
Groq transcriptions that produce repetitive hallucinated text are now automatically detected and retried
Fixed incorrect transcription providers appearing in the Notes and Manual Transcribe modals
Custom instructions now clearly indicate when AI Enhancement needs to be enabled first
April 17th, 2026
We're excited to ship v0.2.6 with a set of highly requested features, quality-of-life improvements, and a solid round of bug fixes.
New Features
Multiple Tone Profiles (macOS) Create and manage multiple tone profiles, each with its own name, icon, AI model, transcription model, and target apps. Switch between them automatically based on the active application.
Filler Word Removal Automatically strip filler words like "um", "uh", and "like" from your transcriptions for cleaner, more polished output.
Edit Transcripts Edit your transcribed text directly after recording — fix mistakes, remove unwanted phrases, or refine the output before using it.
Import & Export Data Back up or migrate your transcripts and settings with a full import/export feature. Take your data with you.
Enhanced Silence Detection (Experimental) A new experimental silence detection algorithm provides more accurate end-of-speech detection in noisy environments.
Hide Recording Indicator Choose to hide the floating recording indicator entirely, or continue controlling whether it appears at the top or bottom of your screen.
Clipboard Image Handling Context awareness now reads images from your clipboard, letting you reference screenshots or visuals when using AI-powered commands.
Improvements
Guided Tour After First AI Connection After connecting your first AI provider, the app now walks you through key features with an interactive guided tour.
AI Connection Flow Setting up your AI provider is now handled in a focused modal — no need to navigate away from what you were doing.
Workflows Modal The workflows modal has been standardised with a consistent layout and improved visual hierarchy.
More AI Enhancement Examples The AI enhancement modal now ships with more built-in prompt examples to help you get started faster.
Whisper Banner Model Prompt The Whisper server restart banner now prompts you to download a local model if none is found, instead of silently failing.
Fixes
Fixed pause and stop buttons not responding correctly during a recording session (Windows)
Fixed the pinned taskbar icon not reliably opening the settings window (Windows)
Fixed clipboard contents being corrupted during text insertion
Fixed mode switching between transcribe and handsfree not considering alternative shortcuts
Fixed the app unexpectedly gaining focus when the settings window was opened (macOS)
Added a 500ms grace period when switching primary shortcuts to prevent accidental mode changes
Keyspy and the keyboard hook now automatically restart when certain input events go missing (macOS)
Fixed the settings window appearing at an incorrect position on screen
Fixed other registered shortcuts firing while a meeting notes session is in progress
Fixed an issue preventing AssemblyAI from connecting correctly as a transcription provider
April 11th, 2026
Release Date: April 11th, 2026
New Features
Custom prompt templates for meeting notes — create and manage multiple templates to control how notes are structured and generated
Failed transcriptions can now be retried directly from the notification banner
Custom search query configurable per workflow to control what context gets used when a workflow runs
Parakeet local model is now pre-warmed at launch so the first transcription starts without delay (macOS)
Improved direct text insertion using a new native binary with SendInput and Unicode support, reliable across all keyboard layouts (Windows)
Minimize button now available in the app window (Windows)
Improvements
Microphone RMS sensitivity increased to better detect quieter voices and softer speech
App now shows an incomplete download state for speech models so you always know when a download is in progress
Meeting notes shortcut now ships with a sensible default hotkey out of the box
Screenshots captured for context awareness are now downsampled before being sent, reducing latency and token usage
Fixes
Fixed a flickering issue in real-time transcription caused by token update callbacks not being reset between sessions
Fixed timeout errors that occurred when audio was paused during a real-time transcription session
Fixed direct text insertion incorrectly copying transcribed text to the clipboard as a side effect
Fixed an issue where changing the selected microphone did not take effect until the app was restarted
Fixed a bug where transcribed text was being written to the clipboard twice
Cancelling a meeting notes session no longer incorrectly shows the transcription indicator
Fixed a visual overflow issue in the notes modal that caused content to be clipped
Fixed sound cue volume levels playing at incorrect levels (Windows)
Download & Update
Auto-update: Existing users receive automatic prompts
Manual: Visit vowen.ai for the latest version
Acknowledgment
Thanks to everyone who submitted feedback and bug report!
April 2nd, 2026
Release Date: April 3rd, 2026
New
Settings have been moved into a clean overlay modal, making it faster to access and navigate without leaving your current context.
You can now assign multiple keyboard shortcuts and individually toggle AI enhancement for hands-free and regular transcription modes.
A dedicated keyboard shortcut is now available to instantly start a meeting notes recording.
A new setting lets you skip saving the voice log after transcription if you prefer not to keep the audio recording.
The app now shows a clear warning when screen recording permission is required, making initial setup smoother on macOS.
You can now disconnect API providers such as OpenAI and AssemblyAI directly from within the app.
Choose between paste and direct text insertion as your preferred method for inserting transcribed text into other apps (macOS only)
Manual transcription sessions can now be cancelled while they are in progress.
Improvements
The shortcuts configuration UI has been redesigned for a cleaner, more intuitive experience with better conflict detection.
Command mode now shows a truncated preview of the selected text, and the executed state is surfaced clearly in the UI.
The notes detail page UI has been simplified and the delete flow for manual transcriptions and notes has been improved.
The app now correctly reasserts its always-on-top position when taking notes on Windows, preventing it from being hidden behind other windows.
Toast notifications have been visually refreshed for a cleaner look.
Fixes
Fixed a bug where shortcut conflicts were not being detected correctly, which could result in silent key binding issues.
Fixed an issue where language hints were not being passed correctly to the Soniox transcription service.
Fixed the pause functionality for real-time transcription sessions.
Fixed an issue where the screen sharing state was not being tracked correctly, causing unexpected behaviour.
Download & Update
Auto-update: If you're already running Whispr, you'll be prompted to update automatically.
Manual download: Head to vowen.ai to download the latest version.
Thank You 🙏
Thanks to everyone who submitted feedback and bug reports — you're helping shape Whispr into a better tool. Keep it coming at hello@vowen.ai
March 28th, 2026
Date: March 28th, 2026
New Features
Edit Meeting Notes — You can now edit meeting notes directly in the detail page using a rich block editor. Type using markdown rules and it gets auto-converted as you write.
Import Meeting Notes — Meeting notes can now be imported, making it easy to bring in recordings and notes from outside the app.
DuckDuckGo & YouTube in Workflows — Workflows can now trigger DuckDuckGo and YouTube searches, expanding what you can automate after a transcription.
Microphone Selection — You can now select which microphone to use in the Notes section before starting a recording.
Improvements
Meeting Notes Memory & Chunking — Memory usage for meeting notes has been reduced and long recordings are now chunked when sent to Mistral, improving reliability for large files.
Microphone Change Handling — The app now detects microphone changes gracefully and recovers without requiring a restart.
Audio Flushing — Pending audio chunks are now flushed at the end of a recording for both ElevenLabs and the native recorder, preventing audio from being silently dropped.
Notes Title Editing — The notes title now uses the same inline edit pattern as other titles, and the transcript UI has been cleaned up.
Menu Organization — Quit has been moved above Privacy Policy in the menu, and Copy Last Transcript has been repositioned on Windows for a more consistent layout.
Fixes
OpenAI max_completion_tokens — Fixed an issue where the wrong token limit parameter was being sent to the OpenAI API, which could cause requests to fail.
Meeting Notes Status Toggle — Fixed a bug where meeting notes stuck in a failed state would not update to success after being regenerated.
Download & Update
Auto-update: If you're already running Whispr, you'll be prompted to update automatically.
Manual download: Head to vowen.ai to download the latest version.
Thank You 🙏
Thanks to everyone who submitted feedback and bug reports — you're helping shape Whispr into a better tool. Keep it coming at feedback@vowen.ai
March 25th, 2026
Date: March 26th, 2026
New Features
Parakeet on Windows — Fast and accurate local transcription is now available on Windows. Parakeet brings the same high-quality on-device transcription that macOS users have had, now fully supported on Windows.
GPU Acceleration on Windows (NVIDIA) — Whisper now runs with NVIDIA GPU acceleration on Windows, significantly speeding up local transcription for users with a compatible NVIDIA card.
Regenerate Meeting Notes — You can now retry and regenerate both transcripts and summaries directly from the meeting notes detail page, without needing to re-record.
Improvements
Fewer Hallucinations with Groq — Silence detection now prevents Groq Whisper Large v3 Turbo from hallucinating repeated phrases or filler text when no speech is detected in the audio.
Meeting Notes for Large Recordings — Long recordings are now automatically chunked before being sent to cloud providers. This avoids hitting rate limits and improves reliability for recordings over 30 minutes.
Parakeet Model Warm-Up — Parakeet now warms up automatically after download so it is ready to transcribe immediately, without a cold-start delay on first use.
Faster Parakeet Downloads — Parakeet models are now packaged as tarballs and served from a CDN, cutting download times significantly.
Updated AI Model List — The AI enhancement model list has been refreshed. Older unsupported models have been removed. If you were using one of the deprecated models, you may want to switch to the latest available option in your AI settings.
Fixes
Clipboard Restore — Fixed a regression where clipboard content was not being restored correctly after a transcription completed.
Close Button on Windows — The close button next to the account button has been restored on Windows after being missing in a previous release.
Model Selection in Menu Bar (Windows) — Fixed an issue where the model switcher in the menu bar displayed radio buttons instead of checkboxes on Windows.
Drag Area for Notes & Transcriptions — Fixed the draggable toolbar area on the meeting notes and manual transcription detail pages.
Switching from Local to Cloud — Fixed an issue where switching from a local transcription model to a cloud provider left the server in a bad state, requiring a restart to recover.
Download & Update
Auto-update: Accept the prompt when it appears in the app.
Manual download: Visit vowen.ai
Thank You 🙏
As always, a big thank you to everyone who shared feedback and bug reports. This release is better because of you.
Questions or feedback? Reach us at hello@vowen.ai
March 22nd, 2026
Date: March 22nd, 2026
New Features
Search Notes & Transcriptions
You can now search across all your notes and transcriptions with full-text search. Finding anything you've ever recorded or noted is instant - no more scrolling through long lists.
System Audio for Meeting Notes
Vowen can now capture system audio for audio-only recordings, making it easy to take meeting notes from online calls without needing a separate microphone input.
Mouse Button Hotkeys
Your M4/M5 mouse buttons and scroll wheel can now be assigned as your push-to-talk hotkey. Useful for power users who want to keep their hands on the mouse while dictating.
Edit Speaker Labels
Speaker labels in transcriptions are now editable. Correct or personalize them directly in the transcript so your notes always reflect who actually said what.
Meeting Notes with Any AI Model
Meeting note summaries now work with any AI model you have configured in Vowen - not just Gemini. Whatever provider you prefer, your notes will use it.
Improvements
Voice Activity Detection on Windows
VAD is now enabled on Windows, bringing the same hands-free, silence-detecting recording experience that macOS users have had to Windows.
AI Enhancement Prompts
Smarter prompts produce more natural, accurate enhancements that stay true to your original intent rather than paraphrasing it.
Update Notifications During Recording
When an app update is available, a subtle notification pill now appears during an active recording session so you're never interrupted mid-dictation.
Clearer AI Error Messages
When an AI provider returns an error, the message is now surfaced clearly in the notification banner instead of failing silently.
Notes Section
The Take Notes section has been redesigned for a cleaner, more intuitive experience - better layout, better readability, easier to use.
UI Polish & Consistency
Refined design choices throughout the app make it more intuitive to navigate, with a consistent look and feel enforced across both light and dark mode.
Fixes
Hotkey after sleep - Fixed an issue where the recording shortcut stopped working after the laptop woke from sleep
Memory mode with custom AI server - Fixed an issue where memory mode was not working when a custom AI enhancement server was configured
Manual transcription for local models - Fixed an issue where manual transcriptions were not working correctly with local transcription models
Stop button in hands-free mode - Fixed a bug where the stop button was unresponsive during hands-free recording sessions
Custom Whisper server health check - Health-check detection for custom local transcription servers now works correctly
Sidebar drag area - Resolved a dead drag region that appeared when the sidebar was collapsed
Download & Update
Auto-update: Accept the prompt when it appears in the app.
Manual download: Visit vowen.ai
Thank You 🙏
As always, a big thank you to everyone who shared feedback and bug reports. This release is better because of you.
Questions or feedback? Reach us at hello@vowen.ai
March 12th, 2026
March 12th, 2026
New Features
Complete App Redesign
Vowen has a brand new look. The entire UI has been redesigned from the ground up — standardized banners, card-based layouts, a refined sidebar, and a more consistent visual language throughout. Dictionary and Threads have been merged into a single page, and the Models section now uses a clean card layout. Memory has been moved into the "Configure your AI" section for a more logical settings flow.
Dedicated Notes Page
Notes now has its own full page. Browse, manage, and organize your saved voice notes in a dedicated space, complete with a searchable log and an improved layout that mirrors the Voice Log experience.
Weekly Stats
The home screen now shows a weekly stats summary so you can track your dictation activity at a glance.
Trim Start
Added the ability to trim the start of a recording before transcription, giving you more control over the output when there's unwanted audio at the beginning of a clip.
Improvements
Improved Voice Log UI
The voice log has been refreshed with a cleaner layout, better readability, and a more consistent style that aligns with the rest of the redesigned app.
Improved Transcribe Section
The transcribe page has been updated to match the visual style of the Notes and Voice Log pages, making the experience feel more cohesive.
Improved Regenerate Transcript Section
The regenerate transcript UI has been polished for better usability and clarity.
Top Toolbar with Account Icon
A new top toolbar has been added, making it easier to collapse the sidebar and access your account directly from the main view.
Improved Sidebar
The sidebar has received multiple rounds of improvement — better spacing, clearer navigation, and the update banner has been moved into the sidebar for a less intrusive experience.
Rounded Corners
UI elements across the app now use more rounded corners for a softer, more modern feel.
Changed Default Hands-Free Mode Shortcut
The default keyboard shortcut for hands-free mode has been updated to reduce conflicts with other system shortcuts.
New Start and Stop Sounds
The recording start and stop audio cues have been updated with new sounds.
Simplified Words Spoken
The words spoken counter on the home screen has been simplified for a cleaner display.
Fixes
First Few Words Missing on Cloud Models
Fixed an issue where the first few words of a transcription would be cut off when using cloud-based models.
Unicode Characters
Resolved an issue where certain unicode characters caused transcription output to break or display incorrectly.
Silent Audio Detection
Fixed an issue where silent audio was not being handled properly, which could cause unexpected behavior during recording.
Windows: Recording Indicator Always on Top
Fixed an issue where the recording indicator on Windows would fall behind other windows. It now correctly stays on top.
Windows: File Picker Sending App to Background
Fixed a bug where opening the file picker on Windows would push the Vowen window to the background.
Windows: File Selector and Update Banner
Resolved issues with the file selector and update banner display on Windows.
Windows: Styling Fixes
Several visual styling issues specific to Windows have been addressed, including layout inconsistencies and element spacing.
Error Banner Styling
The error banner has been restyled to better fit the updated UI.
📥 Download & Update
If you haven't already, Vowen will automatically notify you about this update. You can also:
Auto-update: Accept the prompt when it appears
Manual download: Visit vowen.ai
Thank You 🙏
We appreciate your continued support and feedback!
Have questions, feature requests, or found a bug? We'd love to hear from you:
Email: hello@vowen.ai
Changelog: vowen.featurebase.app/changelog
Feature Requests: vowen.featurebase.app