Quiet Spaces

A place where you can hear each other. Quiet Spaces rates restaurants, cafés and bars on whether you can hear the person across the table, using ratings and decibel readings from people who sat there.

FIND OUT BEFORE YOU GO • A map of venues, color-coded by how easy it is to hold a conversation • Every venue page opens with the answer that matters: how many visitors could hear the person they came with • Filter for Crystal clear or Comfortable rooms, or see what's quiet right now • Venues nobody has rated yet show an estimate, always labeled as an estimate

THE DETAILS THAT DECIDE IT • Patio, booth, bar and main floor are rated separately, because they don't sound the same • Each venue shows its quiet time of day, and about when it ends • Decibel readings come from visitors' phones, measured the way a real sound meter measures

CHECK A ROOM YOURSELF • The noise check listens for a few seconds and shows the room as a ring of smoke: calm and blue when quiet, warm and churning when loud • It also reads how steady a room is. Some rooms are loud but even; others swing between quiet and loud, which is harder for many listeners than volume itself • Nothing is recorded, stored or uploaded. Sound is analyzed on your phone and thrown away; only the number is kept, and only if you attach it to a rating • Quick Rate is one screen and about thirty seconds

WHO IT'S FOR This app is for people who can hear an entire room except the one voice in front of them: people who are hard of hearing, who use hearing aids or cochlear implants, who process sound differently, and autistic or ADHD listeners. It was built by one person who spent years nodding along to conversations he couldn't follow.

The map is young, and it doesn't pretend otherwise. A venue with no ratings says so. Every rating you add gives the next person a real number instead of a guess.