Ozen: Live Captions

Ozen writes what the people around you say in large, clear captions, as they speak. It was made for people who are deaf or hard of hearing: for the kitchen table, a family dinner or a visit to the doctor.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN After a one-time download of the speech model, captions are written on the phone itself, with no internet at all. There's no account, no ads and no tracking. Saved conversations stay on your phone, and you choose whether they're saved at all.

BUILT TO BE READ • Words settle in place instead of jumping around. • Large, high-contrast text, in a light or a dark look. • Give a voice a name once, and what that person says shows with their name. • Type your name once: when someone says it, the phone buzzes and the line lights up. • Captions keep going on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.

ANSWER OUT LOUD • Type what you want to say, and the phone says it for you. Phrases you use often are one tap away. • Or hand them the phone: big letters fill the screen so the other person can write to you, and Flip turns the writing to face someone across the table.

SOUNDS AT HOME A doorbell, a knock at the door, a baby crying, a smoke alarm or a siren can show on the screen with a flash of colour and a vibration. Ozen is a helper, not a certified alarm: keep your smoke alarms, and keep official emergency alerts turned on.

12 LANGUAGES Captions, and the app itself, in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Hindi, Chinese and Amharic.

OPTIONAL • A computer at home can run a bigger speech model for captions that are often more accurate. The sound goes only to your own computer. • You can use an online captioning service with your own key. Ozen asks you before anything is sent.

Ozen is free and open source (GNU AGPL 3.0). It is not a medical device.