Seeing is Hearing

Follow nearby speech with large, live captions. Read on another screen, try the live tutorial, and choose optional headphone listening.

See nearby speech as large, live text.

Seeing is Hearing is a visual aid for everyday conversations. Place your iPhone or iPad near the person speaking, tap Start, and read the words as they appear. Captions update during speech and may change as recognition becomes more certain.

Made for comfortable reading:

• Large captions with three text size choices, including larger presets on iPad.
• A warm design with coloured conversation threads, clear controls, and light and dark appearances.
• Support for your device's larger text setting, portrait and landscape layouts, and VoiceOver labels.
• Simple Start, Pause and Clear controls, plus a microphone level meter.
• An option to keep the screen awake while listening.

Try it with your own voice: The introduction includes a live practice screen. Tap Start and say a few words to see real captions. Practice stays on that device and is cleared when you leave. Reopen the tutorial, read the FAQ, or find help in Settings.

Read on another screen: Use one iPhone or iPad as the microphone and another iPhone, iPad or Apple TV as a caption reader. Both devices need Seeing is Hearing version 1.1 or later. Compare and confirm the matching number on both screens to connect. Either device can Start, Pause and Clear. One microphone connects to one reader at a time, and both apps must remain open. Apple TV shows these conversation captions inside the app; it does not transcribe television programmes or place captions over other apps.

Optional headphone listening: Connect compatible headphones or hearing devices directly to the microphone iPhone or iPad, then turn on Listen through headphones. Read captions and hear nearby speech together. Mute silences headphone sound while captions continue; Pause stops both. Captions work without headphones. Accessory compatibility and audio delay depend on your device and its supported audio connection. The paired caption reader does not receive microphone audio.

Private by design: Speech recognition runs on the microphone device. Optional caption sharing uses an encrypted local connection. No accounts, advertising, analytics, subscriptions, audio recordings or saved transcript history. Conversation text stays in temporary memory. Text you choose to copy is handled by your device and the place you paste it.

Recognition and local caption sharing do not need internet access when on-device speech recognition is available for the microphone device's current language. Availability depends on your device, system version and installed speech resources. The app explains when recognition is unavailable; it does not switch to online transcription or download speech models.

Allow microphone access and, if requested, speech recognition. Connecting devices also needs Local Network access. Keep the microphone near the speaker and have one person speak at a time. Captions can make mistakes; check important details with the speaker.

Seeing is Hearing is a visual conversation aid, not a hearing aid replacement, medical device or emergency communication tool.