Live Transcribe & notification

3.6
160K reviews
1B+
Downloads
Content rating
Rated for 3+
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About this app

Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications make 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 Settings (https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/7650693) to start Live Transcribe or Sound Notifications.

Sound Notifications:
• Get notified of potentially risky situations and personal situations based on sounds happening at home (for example, smoke alarms, sirens, 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 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 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.
Updated on
12 June 2024

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region and age The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
This app may collect these data types
Personal info, Audio and 3 others
Data is encrypted in transit
Data can’t be deleted
Independent security review

Ratings and reviews

3.5
156K reviews
Richard L
25 June 2022
Detects speech extremely well in my experience. However it seems to be 2 applications in one, which is confusing. It worked so well for transcribing that I wanted to try using it to listening for sounds and notifying me of what it heard (actually through a smart watch), but to do that required a lot more permissions and battery usage settings, and once I was finished with that function it wasn't at all easy to set it back to the minimal permissions needed for transcribing.
196 people found this review helpful
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Nicole BY
16 July 2020
The transcription is fast and mostly accurate in the languages I've tried so far (Engl & Japanese) but I can't figure out how to take it to the next level (how do I stop the recording, check the text (I think) I saved, etc.…). As other reviewers here have pointed out: the lack of instructions / menu options is a major & very frustrating shortcoming.
133 people found this review helpful
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bobertramgenius
21 April 2021
NOT ADHD FRIENDLY OR ROBUST Needs 1) fuzzy search through the transcription, 2) adjustable save schedules (eg 15 minutes, an hour, 8 hours, 2 days, a week, etc), and 3) background recording so I can switch tasks or just use it at home all the time (since I always talk to myself), so that I only need to refer to the transcript when I forget what I was doing. Has trouble picking up my voice sometimes, even after updating it (though before I updated it it was essentially nonfunctional)
47 people found this review helpful
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Research at Google
21 April 2021
Thanks for your feedback. We’d like to know the details of the ADHD usecases you mention in #1 and #2. Please send the details or screenshot to live-transcribe-help@google.com. We'll pass it along to our development team and see if there is any way we can improve it.

What's new

• We’ve improved the user experience of Sound Notifications.