The friction

I've been shipping production code for 20 years across five languages — C, C++, Java, Scala, and now C#. My English is decent enough for daily work, but it's not native.

So whenever I want a sharper adjective in an email, or a phrase that doesn't read as translated, I still reach for Google Translate. Sometimes I dictate into it. Sometimes I type — which is slower. And if I'm on a machine without a Russian keyboard layout, the friction goes up another notch.

Multiple times a day. Across email, MS Teams, PR descriptions, design docs.

I finally got tired of switching context, and built a tool to skip it.

Why not the built-in Windows dictation?

Windows 11 has perfectly fine built-in dictation. But it doesn't translate — and translation is the half that matters for non-native English speakers like me.

The workflow I needed:

Press a global hotkey

Speak in my native language

Get English text inserted directly into whatever app I'm in

No browser tab. No copy-paste.…