Show IH: I got tired of fragmented text expanders, so I built an open-source, cross-platform alternative: Typerelay
Hey Indie Hackers,
Text expansion is one of those unsexy productivity tools that quietly saves hours every week. But if you work across different environments (e.g., Mac for design, Linux for servers, Windows for gaming or desktop apps), existing tools fall apart fast.
Most incumbents suffer from three major issues:
OS lock-in: Great on Mac, clunky or absent on Linux/Windows.
Outdated UX: Interfaces designed a decade ago.
Black-box security: Text expanders require accessibility/keystroke permissions by nature, yet almost none let you inspect the code.
To fix this, I built Typerelay (typerelay.com)—an AGPL open-source text expander with cloud sync and team collaboration.
Core specs:
Native Desktop & Mobile: Runs across macOS, Windows, and Linux, with public beta apps for iOS and Android.
Three snippet formats: Plain text, rich text (HTML/images), and code snippets built in a dedicated code editor.
Search palette: Quick fuzzy search popup so you don’t need to memorize hundreds of shortcut triggers.
Deployment options: Use the hosted cloud (Free, Pro, and Team tiers) or self-host the open-source server yourself.
The desktop client is free to test, and the backend is open source.
Check it out at typerelay.com. I’d love your feedback on the onboarding flow and cross-platform UX!
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Open source matters a lot for a tool that can see what you type. I'd test the cross-platform claim with the same snippet in a browser, native app, terminal, and remote desktop. Text insertion can get weird in those cases. I work on DictaFlow, and that's where you see the difference between a demo that works and a tool people trust all day.
Sounds great. Let me know what you find. I can also be reached directly at n@typerelay.com. Thx.
The security argument is the strongest thing you have and cloud sync quietly undercuts it. Being able to read the source answers what the app does on my machine, but the worry with a tool that sees keystrokes is what leaves the machine, and an audit of the client does not settle that. Two things would: a plain page describing exactly what is transmitted and when, and a local only mode that is visibly first class rather than a fallback. People who care enough about this to leave an incumbent are the ones who will ask, and they ask before they try it, not after.
That’s fair. Typerelay already keeps libraries local unless you explicitly upload them, but we haven’t made that boundary visible enough. We’ll publish a plain-language page showing exactly what leaves the machine and make local-only use a first-class choice throughout the product.
Cross-platform text expanders are genuinely annoying to get right because of how differently each OS handles input. What was the trickiest platform to support?
All of them :) Mobile is quirky because of the custom keyboard.
Helpful post. How did you get your first bit of traction?
Great breakdown. What feedback have you had from early users?
Open source solves the trust problem, which is a real one for anything that reads keystrokes, but it is not the thing that will pay you. Your buyer is not the individual dev running three operating systems, it is the support lead with twelve agents pasting the same eight canned replies and no way to update them in one place. I would aim the whole positioning at shared snippet libraries with permissions and version history, and let the open source be the reason their security team approves the install.
Yep, I know. Open Source is just there (but fully supported). In this day and age, I think it's important to make software open source. Those who are serious know that open source is not free but comes with a cost and hence our hosted service.
Helpful post. How did you get your first bit of traction?
Ha, it just got released. However, it's one of my many tools. So interlinking and people knowing what I/we build helps.
With cross-platform access, open-source security, and team collaboration all competing for attention, which user group has shown the strongest pull—and what behavior convinced you to prioritize them?
How does the mobile implementation work given the strict sandboxing around system-wide keystrokes on those platforms? Is it built as a custom keyboard extension, or does it rely on a clipboard workflow instead? System-level expansion on mobile is always a tricky technical hurdle, so I'm curious how you tackled that.
Mobile can be challenging. To address this, I've developed a custom keyboard that allows you to search for snippets and insert them easily. This was the only solution that worked for both iOS and Android. Currently, both platforms are in beta testing. I'm still fine-tuning the keyboard's positioning on Android.
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