Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications

Live Transcribe has a new name — Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications. It's an app that makes everyday conversations and surrounding sounds more accessible among people who are deaf and hard of hearing, using just your Android phone.

Using Google’s state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition and sound detection technology, Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications provides you with free, real-time transcriptions of your conversations and sends notifications based on your surrounding sounds at home. The notifications make you aware of important situations at home, such as a fire alarm or doorbell ringing, so that you can respond quickly.

On most phones, 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. Tap 'Use service', then accept the permissions.

4. Use the Accessibility button or gesture to start Live Transcribe or Sound Notifications.

[New] Sound Notifications:

• Get notified of potential risky situations and personal situations based on sounds happening at home (for example, smoke alarm, siren or baby sounds).

• Get notifications with a flashing light or vibration to your mobile device or wearable.

• Timeline 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. Text appears on your phone as words are spoken.

• Accurately captures the nuances of how words are used in context.

• Choose from over 80 languages and dialects, and quickly switch between two languages.

• 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. Bring up your phone’s keyboard and type your words for a continuous dialogue. Transcriptions still appear while you type.

• See the volume of the speaker’s voice compared to the loudness in your environment. You can use this sound indicator to adjust your volume when you speak.

• 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 three days. Saved transcriptions will stay locally on your device for three days, so that 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 5.0 (Lollipop) 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 Google Accessibility community to provide feedback and receive product updates. For help using Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications, contact the Disability support team.

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 once processing has finished.