Top 10 Android Apps for The Hearing Impaired

According to the National Institute on Aging, approximately one in three people between 65 and 74 years old has hearing loss, while 50% of those 75 years and older have an age-related hearing impairment. Senior citizens face unique healthcare challenges with hearing loss.

The latest smartphones come with different settings and apps to help hearing-impaired individuals easily communicate with others and make their lives easier.

This article covers the 10 best Android apps for hearing-impaired seniors that turn your phone into an assistive device for the elderly.

1. Live Transcribe & Notification

Used For: Live Captions for videos, podcasts, phone calls, audio messages, video calls, and more. The app captures speech and sounds and displays them as text on your phone screen.

Live Transcribe & Notification is developed by Google and is one of the best apps for hearing impaired individuals. The app generates live captions with the help of automatic speech recognition and enables the deaf and hard of hearing to have a conversation by using their Android phone.

Other key features are:

• The app is powered by Google’s speech recognition technology and uses machine learning to generate captions, similar to YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
• Live Transcribe helps you communicate in the moment with real-time captions whether you are meeting someone or ordering a coffee.
• Live Transcribe supports over 80 languages and dialects.
• It supports non-speech sounds including clapping, laughter, music, applause, whistling, and more.
• Google has also released an offline mode of the app that works without internet connectivity.

Live Transcribe is a free and easy-to-use app that enables hearing-impaired individuals to have conversations easily using their Android phones. With support of 80+ languages, it can be used by most Android users and has over 500 Million downloads on the Play Store.

Get Live Transcribe & Notifications on the Google Play Store

2. Sound Amplifier

Used For: Making everyday conversations and sounds more accessible for hard-of-hearing individuals by amplifying the sounds and filtering the noise.

Sound Amplifier, developed by Google, is the best sound amplifier app for Android. It amplifies the sounds around you, and the conversation mode helps you hear better in noisy places by reducing the noise, boosting quiet sounds, and tuning frequencies.

Perfect Hearing Assistance

Sound Amplifier is the best app to filter out background noise. It works in the background so you can watch videos and still hear people. A great tool to understand speech better in noisy environments. Works best when paired with noise-canceling headphones.

Multiple Uses

It works while watching TV so you can hear at a comfortable level without disturbing others. You can use it during a meeting or lecture in school to be able to hear the presenter better. It is great to filter distracting surrounding noises like music in a busy restaurant.

Sound Amplifier is one of the most useful Android apps for the hearing impaired and acts as a hearing aid, making everyday conversations and sounds more accessible for the hard of hearing.

Get Sound Amplifier | How to use Google’s Sound Amplifier app

3. Otter

Used For: Recording and transcribing  meetings, interviews, lectures, and everyday conversations.

The basic function of Otter is to record the audio and live transcribe the meetings and conversations. It is one of the best apps for taking meeting notes in real time and recording them in a searchable and shareable format.

You can stay focused on the conversation and rest assured that information and conversation are captured for future reference.

The key features of Otter include:

• Recording the audio and following the live transcribe.
• Capturing and sharing notes for virtual and physical meetings.
• Highlighting the snippets from the meeting and generating takeaways.
• Assigning action items to individuals with a single tap.
• An automated outline of the meeting.

Otter is a great app for the hearing impaired and other individuals to record, transcribe, and share conversations in real-time so you can focus on the current event without worrying about taking notes. The app is a great tool to remain informed and productive.

Get Otter for Android

4. Volume Booster

Used For: Boosting the volume on Android devices to receive an amplified sound.

Volume Booster provides a high quality, louder sound on your Android phone to listen to your favorite podcast or music or watch videos. The sound quality is clean and accurate without interference and noise.

You can increase the volume up to 200% with a single tap. This is the best free volume booster for Android and has excellent reviews and ratings from users.

Get Volume Booster for Android

5. Hearing Test

Used for: The best hearing test app for Android.

If you are looking for an app to test your hearing, Hearing Test is your best shot. It’s rated the best app based on users’ feedback and the accuracy of results when compared to doctors’ charts and results. There are a few buttons on the start page that are responsible for all functionality of tests. The results are presented in graphs reflecting performance at different frequencies.

To get the best results of the hearing test, follow these tips:

• Use cleaner (if possible newer) headphones and avoid using damaged headphones.
• Find a quiet place and time for the test. You will need silence for a few minutes during the test.

You can take a screenshot of the results to keep a record in case you delete or uninstall the app in the future.

Get Hearing Test for Android

6. Petralex

Used For: Converting your Android phone into a hearing aid.

Petralex is one of the useful apps for hard-of-hearing individuals, offering all the functions of a hearing aid. Seniors can use their Android phones with simple headphones as a delicate and unnoticeable hearing aid.

This app uses the microphone on a phone or headphones to capture sounds, then makes them thrice as loud and removes background noise. It’s an ideal app for hearing-impaired seniors because it helps with:

• Hearing the slightest sounds and whispers: The processing power of modern smartphones amplifies the sound and you can even hear the whispers and do not need a separate hearing aid.
• Providing great quality of sound: The sound is amplified and the app gets rid of background noise and personalizes the sound.
• Easy-to-use interface, buttons and controls suitable for elderly users. New profile-creating feature for any environment and fast, pre-saved profile selection.

This app is the best hearing aid app for Android users and one of the must-have apps for hearing impaired individuals.

Get Petralex for Android

7. Ava: Transcriptions & Captions

Used For: Live transcription of speech to text for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Ava provides accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing seniors by using captions to live transcribe speech to text. The elderly can use Ava to transcribe or live caption speech to text in meetings, classrooms, doctor’s appointments, shopping and other everyday conversations.

It can be used offline, but WiFi or cellular connectivity improves accuracy. The group conversation feature is easy to set up and use.

Get Ava: Transcriptions & Captions for Android

8. Rev Audio & Voice Recorder

Used For: Audio recording, dictation and transcription.

Rev Audio & Voice Recorder is another powerful audio recording app that comes with a transcription option. One thing that makes Rev a great audio recording tool is that it has no annoying ads and is free and simple to record audio.

Transcription is a paid service. Some of the features that make it one of the must-have Android apps for hearing impaired individuals include:

• Recording high-quality audio including interviews, lectures, meetings and more.
• Dictating memos and notes.
• Editing and organizing recordings on your phone and sharing them with others (via dropbox, email and your favorite sharing apps).

If you need an app for high-quality audio recordings without noise, Rev is your best bet. There is no recording limit. You can search and skip to any point while playing back a recording.

Get Rev Audio & Voice Recorder for Android

9. InnoCaption

Used For: Real-time call captioning for people with hearing loss.

InnoCaption makes phone calls easy and accessible for deaf and hearing-impaired seniors with the real-time captioning solution. If phone calls are difficult for you due to tinnitus or hearing issues and you have trouble understanding new voices and high-frequency sounds and have a hard time taking calls in noisy areas, InnoCaption is a must-have app for you.

This app enables you to make phone calls independently and keeps a record of all transcripts until you delete them.

• FCC-certified and funded by FCC, available for free.
• Make and receive calls with your existing number.
• Live stenography: Automated transcription including voicemail and past call transcripts.
• Sync contacts for quick and easy dialing.

Get InnoCaption Live Call Captions for Android

10. Olelo Captioned Calls

Used For: FCC-certified captioned calling app.

Olelo empowers deaf and hearing-impaired individuals to make and receive phone calls. The instant live captions help the elderly with hearing loss to have a better experience using their phone. The key features of this app are:

• Real-time captions: See the instant captions in less than 1 second, as the other person is speaking. The conversation flow is not interrupted by caption delay.
• Accuracy: FCC has rated Olelo the most accurate captioned call provider.
• Simple to use: All the saved contacts are synchronized and you can dial and answer calls as you would normally do. Voicemail is transcribed by accurate speech recognition, and you can access transcripts in call history.

Emergency 911 calls are captioned in real-time. Olelo is free for users with hearing loss and is part of the FCC IP CTS program that ensures functionally equivalent phone service for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Get Olelo Captioned Calls for Android

One of the most common misconceptions about hearing loss is that you cannot improve your hearing. I hope this article shows you how technology is effective in providing a better overall hearing experience.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Is it difficult for you to hear in loud environments? What do you do to solve this problem? Does background noise affect conversation clarity? Are there apps that you use to serve as a hearing aid?