This has been the most requested thing on our roadmap for a long time, so I'm happy to finally say it: Studio now runs as a real desktop app on Mac and Windows. It's in open beta starting today, and we're planning the public release soon.

You can grab it here: https://byok.io/studio/desktop?utm_source=reddit

A few things worth spelling out:

The offline (or local) version of the desktop app is 100% free on both platforms and you can install it on as many computers as you want. You don't even need to create an account. It includes all of Studio's writing features, even the ones that are premium on the web app and mobile app (manuscript, grid, wiki, outline, cards, etc.), and everything works with no internet connection at all.

The only thing that requires a subscription is syncing. If you want the desktop app to sync across your devices, or you want your BYOK to sync directly to the desktop app over Wi-Fi, that's the paid part (since that is what actually costs us money to run). The existing Studio subscription already covers this. If you're subscribed, just open Account › Sync in the desktop app and sign in, and your library comes down and stays in step with the web app, mobile app, and your BYOK. No new subscription is being introduced. In effect, they are all one app, just on different devices.

For BYOK owners who aren't subscribed: plug your BYOK in (disk mode) or pop in its microSD card, and the desktop app will run a local one-way sync with it. Free, no account needed. And the BYOK still syncs to the web app and mobile app for free like it always has.

The beta has been stable in our testing, but this is the first time it's leaving our controlled environment, so expect some rough edges. A couple of things I'd ask:

- Back up anything you can't afford to lose before you start (Account › Sync › Back up in the app). The whole library goes into one file.

- Updates install themselves, so when we fix something it'll show up without you reinstalling anything. Your beta install carries straight through to the public release too.

- If you find a bug, the easiest thing is to open the menu in the app and choose Report Bug. That files a ticket with your version attached so we don't have to ask.

Two platform notes:

Windows: you'll most likely see a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen the first time. Click "More info," check that the publisher says BYOK LLC, then "Run anyway." The installer is signed. That screen is just Microsoft's SmartScreen, which warns about any newly published app until enough people have installed it. It goes away on its own.

Mac: signed and notarized, so nothing to approve. There are separate downloads for Apple silicon and Intel (Apple menu › About This Mac if you're not sure which you have).

If you want to talk to us while we're actively fixing things, the beta is running live in our Discord: https://discord.gg/m2sEw8ATmv. We're reading everything there and pushing fixes as they come in!

Hi all,

Just a heads up that we've pushed out a new firmware update for the BYOK. It fixes a disk mode issue created with version 1.2 but also improves overall disk mode behavior. Disk mode on mac computers should behave much better and be more reliable than previous versions.

In addition, we've tweaked some other things such as the LED brightness and how the BYOK is labeled on your computer. Feel free to read the full patch notes here: https://byok.io/firmware

All the best,
Nick

We’ve been trying out different keyboards, stands, and mounts for ages now and figured you all might like to see some of the setups we’ve whipped up. Perhaps something in here will inspire your own setup.

You can see all the setups here: https://byok.io/25-setups

Hey everyone,

New studio update today! It's a fairly big one.

The focus this time around was on providing more ways to keep your work safe and backed up while also adding several highly requested features.

Some of the highlights:

-Supported exports of ALL files types

-Find and Replace

-Version history now applies to ALL file types

-global search in the projects page (searches all your projects at once)

-undo/redo system for cards

We also did a big pass on the mobile app which is included in the update notes.

Feel free to read the full update here: https://byok.io/updates

As always, thank you for your suggestions and for reporting bugs. These tickets keep us informed on how Studio is working for you and is the fuel for these updates.

Studio is only just getting started and we're excited for what the future holds!

All the best,
Nick

Hey everyone, just a heads up that our much-smarter-than-me firmware engineer Scott (u/sshwarts) has joined our subreddit and will be hanging out in here to address firmware-related stuff whenever he has the time. I’ll continue to be in here as well but I figured he would be a great resource to have around considering he is the mastermind behind the BYOK firmware 🤠

Not to be confused with the device firmware update yesterday, we have just released a new studio update on the web app! This update targets some of the major lingering issues we have been following on the platform as well as makes improvements to areas we felt were sub-optimal. Feel free to read the full patch notes below. As always, you can see all of Studio's latest updates here.

If you run into any bugs, please don't forget to report them here or inside of Studio!

-------------

Update #12: Faster Long Files, Smarter Navigation & Scratch Pad Polish

Update Focus

This update improves performance in long files, reworks Studio’s navigation, adds a faster way to build manuscripts, and includes polish for the Scratch Pad, Grid, and theming.

Performance: Built for Long Files

• Fast typing in big documents: typing in large text files and manuscripts is now dramatically more responsive, even at 100,000+ words
• Regression fixed: part of this slowdown crept in with a previous update. That’s been rooted out along with several older bottlenecks, so long files should feel better than ever, not just “back to normal”

Smarter Navigation

• The back button now goes back: with a document open, the back arrow closes your document and returns you to the project instead of jumping all the way out to the project list
• Breadcrumb header: the header now shows Projects / Your Project, so you can always see where you are and jump straight to your projects with one click
• Devices page returns you to your work: opening Devices no longer navigates you away. It opens over your current page and closes right back to it, with your open documents untouched

Manuscript: Add Files in Bulk

• Multi-select picker: the “Add Existing File” picker now lets you select many files at once instead of one at a time
• Clear ordering: numbered badges show exactly what order your selections will be added in. Shift-click selects a whole range
• One-click add: confirm once and everything is added in a single, reliable operation
• Cleaner picker: the picker is now a centered dialog like Studio’s other windows, instead of a popup anchored to the page

Scratch Pad Refinements

• Two focused tabs: the Scratch Pad is now just Tasks and Notes. The old “All” tab mixed both types and forced clunky raw-text editing for checklists. Each tab now edits its content the right way
• Edit tasks from the quick access panel: click any task’s text to edit it in place, press Enter to split into a new task, and delete tasks with the new hover trashcan button, all without opening the full Scratch Pad
• Steady panel size: the quick access panel now has a fixed height instead of growing and shrinking with its contents, so it always opens looking the same
• Centered layout: on large screens, notes, tasks, and captures now sit in a comfortable centered column instead of stretching to the far left edge

Grid: No More Accidental Tiles

• Click to deselect, double-click to create: clicking empty grid space now simply deselects, with no more accidentally spawning tiles. Double-click an empty cell (or use the subtle + button) to create one, and drag to size it, same as always

Other Improvements

• Recent files in the drawer: a new Recents filter in the drawer’s Show section lists your most recently updated files, right next to Favorites
• Pasted text matches Studio: text pasted from other apps now adopts Studio’s formatting. No more invisible white text pasted from dark-mode apps. Pasted text always follows your theme, while bold, italics, lists, and links are kept
• Theme picker in dark mode: the Choose Theme menu now previews each theme’s actual dark-mode colors when Studio is in dark mode

Bug Fixes & Stability

• Word count goals in text files: session goals now count words typed in the dedicated text file window, not just in the manuscript, and words are never counted twice across the two views
• Manuscript navigator pills: section pills no longer get squished and cut off when a manuscript has many sections. The list scrolls instead
• Paragraph spacing in manuscripts: device-synced text files now show proper paragraph spacing in manuscript view, matching how they look in document view. This also fixes strange Enter and Backspace behavior when editing those files in a manuscript
• Word exports keep your paragraphs: exporting to Word no longer “glues” paragraphs together. Blank lines between paragraphs now become real paragraph breaks in the DOCX, so formatting one paragraph doesn’t drag its neighbors along
• Additional quality-of-life improvements throughout Studio

Hey everyone, we just released our latest firmware update for the BYOK which is now available for download either through our website or over wifi on the device!

While this update is a bit more on the maintenance side of things, we have some major features in the works for future updates :)

Patch notes:

BYOK 1.1.3 — What’s New

Fixed: Some Bluetooth keyboards connected but wouldn’t type

A number of Bluetooth keyboards would pair and show as “connected,” but nothing happened when you pressed a key. This affected keyboards that require a secure connection before they’ll share their keystrokes — for example, the YUNZII RT75 PRO.

These keyboards now connect and type correctly. When one of them is paired for the first time, you may notice the connection takes a few seconds longer to become ready — the device is quietly re-establishing a secure link in the background so your keystrokes come through reliably. Keyboards that already worked are unaffected and connect just as quickly as before.

Typing & keyboards
- Fixed accented letters and special symbols on several keyboard layouts (German, French, Italian, US-International and others) so they type the character you expect.
- German quotes and French angle quotes (« ») typed with the AltGr key now work correctly on physical keyboards.
- Colemak layout: the Caps Lock key now acts as Backspace, matching the standard Colemak design.
- Fixed an issue where certain USB keyboards behaved as if the Control key was being held down.
- The editor now correctly shows accented and special characters as you type them.

Languages & accents
- Accented characters (é, à, ç, and more) now display properly in menus, dialogs and the contrast screen — no more empty boxes.
- Improved French, German and Spanish translations: corrected wording, fixed a couple of items that were showing in the wrong language, and translated text that had been left untranslated.

Wi-Fi
- You can now connect to open Wi-Fi networks that don’t require a password.

Writing tools
- Word count now treats slash-joined text such as dates (07/24/26) as a single word, matching how other writing apps count.

Hey everyone,

I'm curious to get some feedback from you today regarding a larger project we have going on behind the scenes.

My question to you:
Let's say you could create your own plugin or script for the BYOK. What would you want it to do?

One request is to keep this plugin focused on the writing experience and the writing itself.

Excited to hear your thoughts!

Hey all,

We have released a new update for Studio which adds some new features and fixes bugs across many different parts of the software.

The new features include a device settings section where you can now set your preferences for how the device and Studio handle line breaks/paragraphs, as well as the default behavior for which files are synced to your device. We have changed the default behavior so that all text files you create in Studio now get automatically synced to your BYOK. Of course, you can toggle this back to the old behavior if you wish.

We've also added line spacing which can be toggled between 1.5 spacing (default), single spaced and double spaced.

In addition , we've put out a TON of bug fixes and quality of life improvements. You can read the whole update here: https://byok.io/updates

Happy writing!!

Hey all, I made a post a bit ago asking for your thoughts on an idea I had which involved a lightweight private LLM.

It’s clear this is something you all prefer not to have as a built-in feature for good reason. I have since deleted the post to avoid any confusion about this being an actual feature.

I appreciate you letting me have an open discussion with you. It really helps me to stay on the same page with you.

For anyone this may have upset, just know WE HAVE NO PLANS TO INCORPORATE AI and I just wanted to mention the idea due to its sensitive nature. I take changes like this seriously and would never spring them on you!

All the best,
Nick

Hello BYOKers,

I've got a question for you today.

It's about an idea I have floating around in my head. Nothing formal. And you are the first place I am openly talking about it as you have always thoughtfully contributed your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.

Basically, I had this idea for something called the "portal" which would effectively be an empty text input box that you could pop open on the BYOK at any time in which you could type some sort of command or request. The BYOK would then send that request to our backend which would handle your tasks IF ALLOWED (we'll come back to this).

As you can imagine, using traditional code to accomplish this would be nightmarish and near-impossible. It would almost certainly require some kind of lightweight LLM. (YUCK!?) Potential yuck, but also, it may not be an LLM in the way you imagine. The difference would be a few things:

1. Any attempt to generate original content, ideas, or even try to get a subjective opinion such as "is my pacing okay?" would be outright rejected. These guardrails would essentially prohibit anything creative and would only allow you to do tasks that save on laborious, monotonous, or technical tasks related to BYOK and Studio.

Examples of what would be allowed:
-"Please rename all of my files in this folder to X"
-"Please link the file called chapter 2 to my BYOK"
-"Please convert these notes into a bulleted list"
-"Please put each of the plot points in this draft into a cards file in order"
-"Please replace the "Ben" with "Chris" everywhere it appears in this draft."
-"What is the name of the hometown of this character? It is located in my wiki"
-"Please spell check this draft."
-"Please convert this outline into a cards file with a separate card for each scene"
-"Please add this list to my scratchpad as individual tasks."
-"please remind me of the word count of my manuscript file"
-"where was this character in chapter 3?"

Examples of requests that would be outright rejected:
-"Please write the next scene"
-"Give me some possible names for this location"
-"Please analyze my pacing in this draft"
-"Please edit this draft"
-"please change my tone to be more like this author"
-"Please cut the unnecessary parts of this chapter"
-"what do you think of this scene?"

3. The general workload of the LLM would be very light in comparison to others.
   It would only be working with lightweight text and tasks. No image or video generation or anything like that.

Sometimes the changes would be made and then synced back to your device and other times the changes would only be made inside of your studio account for you to view next time you get on studio. And sometimes, a simple answer will be sent back to your device. (This is to avoid you have to pull out a laptop or phone during your drafting session)

Hopefully this paints the picture. And again, I am bringing this up here because I want to hear your thoughts before thinking too much about it. Please feel free to ask questions or voice your thoughts.

Nick

P.S. If you're curious about my personal stance on AI, it would be something like this: I am firmly against the use of AI to generate original writing or ideas. It is an utterly pointless way to deprive writers of the writing process and the meaning found within that. I do not even like the tools which help you "edit" your work by doing things like giving you suggestions on sentence length, pacing, use of certain words, etc. I believe this is part of finding your voice. Many of these things are subjective and therefore part of the artistic endeavor. There are many great authors of the past who would "fail" these editorial checks.

EDIT:
Thank you for all your thoughtful feedback!

I’d say it’s pretty clear this is something you all prefer not to have as a built-in feature and your reasons are compelling.

I appreciate you letting me have an open discussion with you. It really helps me to stay on the same page with you.

For anyone this may have upset, just know we’re not implementing anything like this! I just wanted to mention the idea due to its sensitive nature. I take changes like this seriously and would never spring them on you!

Hi everyone,

Hope you are well and getting a lot of writing done with your BYOKs!

As you can tell by the patch notes below, today's update is fairly small but but it addresses crucial areas such as security and reliability. Whenever you get time, remember to run the "Check for Updates" option on your device or manually download it from the firmware page on our website.

Regarding the split keyboard compatibility, the one we targeted was the UHK80 model, and this will hopefully carry over into some other split keyboard models as well.

Your detailed bug reports have been incredibly helpful as we continue to refine the firmware.

Patch Notes:
-Added support for some split-keyboard models
-Lengthened device ID required for syncing for improved security (this only affects those who are not already connected to syncing)
-Fixed a rare bug which could result in losing data (usually the beginning of a file) during syncing.

Firmware page for manual downloads: https://byok.io/firmware

As always, thank you for your support!

Just a quick heads up.

We just put the last 20 white BYOK's on the site and have no plans to bring back this variant. If you want a white BYOK, now is the time!!

You can get one here: https://byok.io/device

Hey Everyone,

As of 5 minutes ago, we just pushed a major new feature that ties Studio into your device workflow much more deeply than before.

Capture Center
The gist is that we have built out our own "command syntax" that can be written on the BYOK and then read by studio in a way that allows studio to act on those commands. This makes things like creating cards, wiki entries, and outlines on the device possible in addition to specifying destinations, tags, titles and more for files. These newly created "captures" on the device will automatically route themselves into the correct location of your studio project or appear in the new capture center which is an extension of the scratchpad. (We have added several quality of life features to the scratchpad as well).

Comment System
We have also created a new comment system similar to google docs that attaches inline comments to specific text in your text files and manuscripts. These comments can also be created from the device and will appear in the comments panel in the correct position inside of a text or manuscript file.

Resources
Rather than go into all the details, I invite you to read the guide here as it's quite a lot to take in: https://byok.io/scratch-pad

There's a shorter version of the guide in the device manual here: https://byok.io/device-support#capture-syntax

And here's the update page to see the "patch notes" version of this update: https://byok.io/updates

We hope to have a video out on this in the near future to further help in understanding this feature but we are very excited for what this brings to the BYOK and Studio relationship.

Would love to hear what you think and happy to answer any questions!! (please report any bugs if you find any!)

P.S. This does NOT require a device firmware update.