Bug: Omi Windows desktop app freezes for a while after sending a chat message, then recovers

[hugoaap-code]

Summary

On the Omi Windows desktop app, after starting a chat and sending a message, the app freezes for a while before becoming responsive again.

The machine has strong hardware, so this does not appear to be a normal low-spec performance issue.

Environment

• Omi Desktop
• Windows
• Observed on Thursday, July 30, 2026
• Hardware is not the bottleneck (issue observed on a strong machine)

Problem

After sending a message in chat, the desktop app becomes temporarily frozen.

It does recover after a while, but the freeze is long enough to be noticeable and disruptive.

Expected behavior

• Sending a chat message should keep the app responsive
• The app can process the request in the background, but the UI should not freeze
• Users should be able to continue interacting with the chat window normally while waiting for a response

Actual behavior

• Start a chat
• Send a message
• The app freezes for a while
• After some time, it unfreezes and becomes usable again

Impact

This makes the chat experience feel unstable and slow.

Even if the app eventually recovers, the temporary freeze creates the impression that the app crashed or is overloaded.

Reproduction

1. Open Omi Desktop on Windows
2. Start a chat
3. Send a message
4. Observe that the app freezes for a while
5. Wait and observe that it eventually unfreezes

Suggested investigation

• Check whether sending a chat message is blocking the UI thread
• Check for synchronous work being done in the renderer or main process after message submission
• Check whether response streaming, state updates, or persistence logic are causing the freeze
• Profile CPU and memory usage during message send and initial response generation
• Add instrumentation around the send-message flow to detect UI stalls

Notes

The key issue is not that the app is permanently crashing. It freezes temporarily after sending a message, then recovers.