[Update: New Sound Amplifier Release] Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier are new Google apps to help the hearing impaired

Update (7/24/19 @ 3:45 PM ET): Google has upgraded the Sound Amplifier app and slightly redesigned it as well.

Most of the technology that we use every day is geared towards and tailored for consumers with no disabilities. But the technology we do possess right now can be utilized to make life a whole lot easier for people with disabilities, bringing them at par with how we experience life every day.

Working towards this very goal, Google has introduced two new apps for Android that are designed to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people in their social interactions.

Live Transcribe

Live Transcribe is a live transcription tool for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. This app helps make everyday conversations much more accessible as it takes real-world speech through the phone’s microphone and converts it into captions in real-time. The app meets the needs of the deaf community by focusing the progress that Google has made so far with speech recognition into a use-case scenario that receives little attention, i.e. accessibility.

Live Transcribe is available in over 70 languages and dialects. Apart from providing live transcription, the app also enables two-way conversation via a type-back keyboard for users who cannot speak, and connects with external microphones to improve transcription accuracy. Live Transcribe is available in an early access limited beta through the Play Store, and will also be pre-installed on Pixel 3 devices. To use Live Transcribe, enable it in Accessibility Settings, then start Live Transcribe from the accessibility button on the navigation bar.

Live Transcribe (Free, Google Play) →

Sound Amplifier

Sound Amplifier was announced in Google I/O 2018. It works by increasing quiet sounds, while not over-boosting loud sounds. You can customize sound enhancement settings and apply noise reduction to minimize distracting background noise. The app’s use cases are situations where there is a lot of background noise, like noisy public areas and airport lounges.

Sound Amplifier is available on the Play Store and supports Android 9 Pie, and comes pre-installed on Pixel 3.

Source: Google Blog

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Update: New Sound Amplifier Release

Google has redesigned and upgraded the Sound Amplifier app that was released just earlier this year. The app is now available on devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above. Google redesigned the app and added an audio visualization feature that shows when sound is detected. You can now also launch the app from the home screen, like any other app. The control settings have been reorganized so you can easily tap between boosting your sound or filtering background noise.

Sound Amplifier (Free, Google Play) →

Source: Google

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