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.

On most devices, you can open Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications with these steps:
1. Open your device's Settings app
2. Tap Accessibility
3. Depending on which feature you'd like to use, tap Live Transcribe or Sound Notifications

You can also use the accessibility button, gesture, or Quick Settings to start Live Transcribe or Sound Notifications (https://g.co/a11y/shortcutsFAQ).

Real-time transcriptions
• Get transcriptions in real-time in over 120 languages and dialects. Add custom words that you use frequently, like names or household items.
• Set your phone to vibrate when someone says your name.
• Type responses in your conversation.
• Use external microphones found in wired headsets, Bluetooth headsets, and USB mics for better audio reception.
• On foldable phones, show transcriptions and typed responses on the outside screen so it's easier to communicate with others.
• Choose to save transcriptions for 3 days. Saved transcriptions will stay on your device for 3 days so you can copy and paste them elsewhere. By default, transcriptions are not saved.

Sound Notifications
• Get notified about important sounds around you, like when a smoke alarm beeps or baby cries.
• Add custom sounds to get notified when your appliances beep.
• Review sounds from the past 12 hours to check what was happening around you.

Requirements:
• Android 12 and up

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

Help & feedback
• To provide feedback and get product updates, join the Accessible Google Group at https://g.co/a11y/forum
• For help using Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications, connect with us at https://g.co/disabilitysupport

Permissions notice
Microphone: Live Transcribe and Sound Notifications needs microphone access to transcribe the speech and sounds around you. The audio is not stored after transcriptions or recognized sounds are processed.
Notifications: Sound Notifications features require notifications access in order to notify you of sounds.
Nearby devices: Live Transcribe needs access to nearby devices to connect with your Bluetooth microphones.

Ratings and reviews

Sketchy at best. I recorded a meeting yesterday. I stopped the recording and restarted not know it was going to overwrite the first half of the meeting. The toggle that says delete after 24 hours (greyed out) actually means that it will delete after 24 hours. If you toggle that ON, it changes to keep for 3 days. Completely non intuitive button. The transcription word recognition is poor. Much of the dialogue is trying to check the context to figure out which word was actually spoken.

Works great but for some reason I have to go to Google Play to search it and then open it. I cannot find it in my regular list of apps. I can turn it on by going to settings, that takes 4 clicks + 2 scrolls. Your open settings, that takes two steps, then scroll to and click accessibility, scroll down to live transcribe and click yet again. So it's quicker to use Google Play as transcribe is always my top search. The scrolling uses the mist time.

I'm still trying to get s handle on this app. I have to say, the speed and spelling accuracy of this app blows me away. I can have the TV going in the room and be talking to two people and the app is recording , in real time, every word . Of the TV, of me , and whomever else is conversing. I'd like to have better / more options to control its settings. Right now, I've got s floating button on my screen. I do not want it there. II cannot figure out if it's a bug in the app, or feature.

What's new

• Dual screen support on foldable phones. Experiences can vary on different phones.
• Support for more offline languages, including Hindi, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and Vietnamese.