Google’s Live Transcribe: promising new tech for hearing loss
The transcription services market has grown. In the U.S. alone, it was valued at $19.8 billion USD in 2019 and it’s expected to expand an estimated 6.1% annually through 2027.
With COVID-19 having brought school, work and socializing online, it’s no surprise that more people are relying on transcription apps and plugs-in for their smart devices and computers.
Google’s Live Transcribe & Sound Notifications (formerly simply Live Transcribe) has really evolved in the last year to meet the demand for assistive technology for those that are hard of hearing.
The app says it “makes everyday conversations and surrounding sounds more accessible among people who are deaf and hard of hearing” when using their Android device.
What can it do?
It leverages automatic speech recognition technology to provide real-time transcriptions of your conversation. The newest feature uses Google’s sound detection technology to provide sound notifications, making users more aware of loud sounds in their environment, such as smoke alarms, sirens, doorbells, barking dogs or a baby crying. Doubling down on its accessibility features, Google enables sound notifications to be sent to a wearable the user syncs to the app and their Android phone, alerting them of noise via a flashing light or vibration.
How can you access the transcription?
While the default setting does not save transcriptions, users can change this to save them for three days. Google assures users that transcriptions stay locally on the devices. Within those three days, users can copy and paste the transcript elsewhere if they need the content for longer.
What’s the catch?
Honestly, we haven’t found one. The app and three-day transcription storage are free. There are also multiple languages it can transcribe once the user selects the language preference.
Some people have reported the phone has to be close to the source of both noise and conversation in order to trigger sound notifications and transcribe accurately. Other users have complaints that the app cuts out and misses words. Google being Google, we’re confident they’re working out the kinks.
HeardThat and Live Caption
Another great hearing assistive resource we’ve mentioned before is Google’s Live Caption, which pairs well with HeardThat. While Live Caption works on Android phones, our iPhone users can use Google’s Meet app and Live Captions for video calls. This is significant for those with moderate to severe hearing loss. While the noise removal can help, some levels of hearing loss benefit from the additional assistive technology like captions.
Android users, if you use HeardThat with Live Caption, we’d love to hear about your experience. Tweet us @HeardThatApp or post on our Facebook Page to tell us about it. For our iOS crowd, check back here often as we’re watching for something similar that works just as well with the iPhone.