Live Transcribe & Notification

Research at Google

About this app

Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications makes everyday conversations and surrounding sounds more accessible among people who are deaf and hard of hearing, using just your Android phone or tablet.

On most devices, you can directly access Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications with these steps:
1. Open your device's Settings app.
2. Tap Accessibility, then tap Live Transcribe, or Sound Notifications, depending on which app you’d like to start.
3. Use the Accessibility button, gesture or quick setting (https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/7650693) to start Live Transcribe or Sound Notifications.

Sound Notifications:
• Get notified of potential risky situations and personal situations based on sounds happening at home (for example, smoke alarm, siren, baby sounds).
• Add custom sounds to get notified when your appliances beep.• Get notifications with a flashing light or vibration to your mobile device or wearable.
• List view lets you go back in history (currently limited to 12 hours) to see what was happening around you.

Real-time transcription:
• Transcribes in real-time in over 80 languages and dialects.
• Add custom words that you use frequently, like names or household items.
• Set your device to vibrate when someone says your name.
• Type responses in your conversation. Bring up your device’s keyboard and type your words for a continuous dialogue. Transcriptions still appear while you type.
• Use external microphones found in wired headsets, Bluetooth headsets, and USB mics for better audio reception.

Referring back to transcription:
• Choose to save transcriptions for 3 days. Saved transcriptions will stay locally on your device for 3 days, so you can copy and paste them elsewhere. (By default, transcriptions are not saved.)
• Search within saved transcriptions.
• Touch and hold text in transcription to copy and paste.

Requirements:
• Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and up.

Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications was made in collaboration with Gallaudet University, the premier Deaf and hard of hearing university in the US.

Join the https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/accessible to provide feedback and receive product updates. For help using Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications, connect with us at https://g.co/disabilitysupport.

Permissions Notice
Microphone: Live Transcribe needs microphone access to transcribe the speech around you. The audio is not stored after the transcription is processed. Sound Notifications needs microphone access to listen for sounds happening around you. The audio is also not stored after processing is finished.
Accessibility Service: Since this app is an accessibility service, it can observe your actions.
Notifications: Sound Notifications featuresrequire notifications access in order to notify you of sounds.
Nearby devices: Live Transcribe needs Nearby devices access to connect with your Bluetooth devices for microphone.

Ratings and reviews

Start, pause stop, edit, select and delete either don't exist or are not easily found. I can "select all" and copy but cannot delete anything. When I open the app it starts immediately recording any person or conversation, not allowing a pause for what I don't want recorded and resume when that person stops talking and the ones I want recorded begin talking. Frequently it also completely mistranslates.

Has potential, but awkward. The app is handy as I've needed something to communicate with my dad who suddenly lost his hearing. The transcription accuracy is ok, but the thing that really makes this difficult to use is the lack of a simple pause button. Even in a meeting, you should be able pause the transcription when the food delivery shows up or some other prolonged distraction. Did find the hold option, but that just delays the display. Doesn't actually stop the transcribing.

The transcription ability of this app is like no other. Wow, I've pushed it to the limits and it keeps up without even a sweat. There is an issue, however -- when its accessibility service is enabled (so it can be called via two-finger gesture swipe), it causes double punctuation to be added to *all* keyboard input *anywhere* throughout the device. Even when you're not using Live Transcribe. It's been driving me nuts for a week now, but I finally traced it to this app's service. 5-star if fixed!