Live CC

Hard of hearing? Live CC can help. How?

Live CC turns speech into text in real time, so you can read what people are saying as they say it. It's made for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and need help following conversations in everyday situations.

Let me tell you a story... one day my Aunt Joy—an awesome lady—wrote this on Facebook:

"Question: why can't anyone come up with an app for your phone for the hearing impaired? Say you're shopping and the sales associate asks you a question, you point your phone at them and it automatically shows up on your screen like a text, or, when you're in a social situation, point your phone to the person talking and bam! conversation! Just a thought."

I thought, "Hey, I'm a programmer. I can do that!" So I made Live CC.

HOW DO YOU USE LIVE CC?

Imagine you need to understand what someone is saying, but it's hard to hear. Like ordering from a barista. Or talking with a friend. Or sitting in a meeting or at the doctor's office.

• Tap the microphone button, or say "Hey Siri, start captioning with Live CC." You can also start it from Control Center, the Lock Screen, or the Action button.
• Point your iPhone's microphone (or an external mic) toward the person speaking.
• Their words appear on your screen as they talk.
• When you're done, tap the button again, or say "Hey Siri, stop captioning with Live CC."

NEW: CAPTIONS THAT KEEP GOING

Your screen stays on while you're captioning, so it won't lock in the middle of a conversation. And if your phone does lock, captioning keeps going. The latest caption shows on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, with a Stop button right there.

HOW WELL DOES IT WORK?

Live CC isn't perfect, but it usually works well enough that you can understand what people are saying.

Here's what Aunt Joy said:

"And, it works!!!!, the Patient Care Coordinator at U.W.M.C., was very impressed!!!. Love you, Todd, for coming up with this & helping your poor Aunt out"

And...

"It helps a lot, tried it with my barista this morning & she loved it. Even with the app replacing words, we can still get the gist of the conversation."

You may notice the newest words change as someone is still talking. That's normal. Live CC refines its best guess with every new word, then locks the text in once a phrase is finished.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN

All speech recognition happens right on your iPhone. Your conversations are never sent to the cloud, and once your language is downloaded, Live CC works without an internet connection. There's no time limit, so you can caption a whole conversation.

MORE FEATURES

• Many languages. Pick yours in Settings. New languages download the first time you use them.
• Flip the text so the person across the table can read it too.
• Full-screen mode and adjustable text size for easy reading.
• Transcripts save automatically to History, with a title and summary created on your device (on supported devices). Search, reread, or share them anytime.
• Works with VoiceOver, including braille displays, and supports large text sizes.
• Available in English, Spanish, French, and German.

TIPS FOR BEST RESULTS

• Point the microphone toward the person speaking.
• Closer is better. A quieter spot helps too.
• For the best accuracy, consider an external microphone. The better the microphone, the better the result.

I hope Live CC can help you like it helped my Aunt Joy.