Apps and gadgets to help with mild to moderate hearing loss

Adam Tweed | 03 Mar 2023

World Hearing Day

"World Hearing Day is an annual global advocacy event for raising awareness regarding hearing loss and promoting ear and hearing care, and calling for action to address hearing loss and related issues. Each year, this event is celebrated on 3 March." This year the focus is on ear and hearing care and the 60% of ear and hearing issues that can be addressed at primary healthcare level.

Proactive ear and hearing care is vital, and should always be your focus, but there are also some tech-related supports that can complement this.

Google Sound Amplifier

Google Sound Amplifier is an app developed by Google to assist people who experience hearing difficulty. This app uses your Android device’s microphone to amplify sound and gives you the ability to adjust sound settings, making it easier to hear conversations, music, and other audio content. 

You can find the app in the accessibility settings for your phone. If you don’t see it listed, you can download Sound Amplifier for free from the Google Play Store. The app is compatible with Android devices running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or later.

You will need to have headphones plugged in (or connected wirelessly), and although the app will work with Bluetooth headphones or earpods, it may not work if paired with Bluetooth hearing aids.

The app is relatively intuitive and easy to use, and when you have connected your headphones, you will be given three modes in which the app will work: "off" (which doesn’t need an explanation), "Phone mic" (which uses the microphone on your phone to pick up sounds in the environment around you), and "Phone media" (which adjusts the sounds of things you might watch or listen to on your phone).

Depending on the option you’ve selected, you will see a number of controls:

For the “Phone mic” option you will see: 

  • Conversation mode (available on Google Pixel phones only): You can use this mode to help select which speaker you want to listen to using the phone's camera. You can either hold the phone so they are in the frame or give your phone to the other person.
  • Noise reduction: this reduces background noise, and there is a slider to adjust how much background noise you want. Putting the slider all the way down can make things sound a little muffled, but in noisy environments, you might prefer this.

The “Phone media” options also have sliders for you to:

  • Boost quiet sounds – This will increase the volume of quieter sounds without increasing the overall volume.
  • Boost low or high frequencies – This enables you to favour whether low or high frequencies are given a boost. The slider default is in the middle.

You can change these settings as needed and as the audio changes, such as if someone else joins the conversation with a different tone of voice, which you can re-adjust to make hearing them more comfortable.

All of the processing of sound happens on your phone, which means nothing is sent to Google, and you can use Sound Amplifier without a WiFi connection or using up your data.

The Google Sound Amplifier does have some limitations. It is not designed to replace professional hearing aids, tests, or medical advice and is not suitable for people with severe hearing loss. Additionally, the app can only amplify sounds that are picked up by your device's microphone, so it may not be effective in noisy environments with a lot of background noise. You may also find that placing your phone on a hard surface, such as a table, will pick up more clatters and knocks than holding it in your hand.

Find out more about Sound Amplifier on My Computer My Way 

Live Transcribe

Google's Live Transcribe app transcribes spoken words into text, allowing you to read what is being said in real-time. It is free to download on Android devices and can be used 'offline' (without a WiFi or internet connection), so it doesn't send any of your conversations to Google. You can find the app in the accessibility settings for your phone. If you don’t see it listed, you can download Live Transcribe for free from the Google Play Store. 

The Live Transcribe app was developed by Google in collaboration with Gallaudet University, a university for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. 

To use the app, open it on your Android device and place it near the person talking, and the app will immediately start transcribing their speech into text. The app can recognise and transcribe multiple speakers, making it ideal for use in group settings. You can also place your phone next to a TV or computer speaker, but it tends to be less accurate with the sound from speakers.

You can adjust the font size and colour of the text to make it easier to read, and it will keep a record of the transcription for future reference. You can set the app to keep conversations for 24 hours or for 3 days, but you also have the option to manually delete conversations whenever you like. You can copy and paste the transcribed text into another programme if you want to keep it longer or organise different conversations or meetings.

Live Transcribe will also highlight sounds such as laughter, crowd noise, clapping, dog barking, alarms, etc., but these aren't added to the transcript itself; they only show up in the live transcription.

Captioning in smart glasses

A future implementation of this technology may be through augmented reality (AR). Last year at Google IO, their annual developer conference, Google demonstrated how the live transcription text could be projected onto the lenses of some smart glasses. Doing so give the wearer access to the transcried text without having to read from their phone: They can maintain eye contact. The video (below) shows Google's inital experiments with real-time language translation, as well as enabling people who are deaf or hard of hearing access to real time, on-demand spoken conversations.

Sound notifications

Another great Google app or accessibility feature for Android are sound notifications. This feature uses the sound identification feature of Live Transcribe, providing you with visual alerts when it hears them. The sounds it can currently identify are:

Emergency sounds:

  • Smoke and fire alarms
  • Sirens

Priority sounds:

  • Baby sounds
  • Dog barking
  • Doorbell ringing
  • Knocking

Appliances and other sounds:

  • Appliance beeping
  • Landline phone ringing
  • Water running

You can activate sound notifications in the accessibility settings of your Android device (you may need to download Live Transcribe for free from the Google Play Store). Here you can also set which of the sounds it recognises you want to be notified about, as well as how you want this notification to be sent. You can select a message, have the phone vibrate, and/or have the phone flash. You can also set the app to push sound notifications out to any connected smartwatch, so you don’t have to carry your phone about with you to still get notifications.

You can also add custom sounds by selecting the ‘custom sounds’ option and recording the sound you want to be alerted to (for example, if your doorbell plays a tune that the app doesn't recognise as a doorbell ring).

You can find out more about sound notifications on My Computer My Way.

Earzz an interesting innovation

Rather than use your phone to listen out for sound, London-based company Earzz has designed a handy sensor that you can place anywhere in your house and have it listen for and alert you to specific sounds. The Earzz device is about the size of an espresso cup and has four smooth sides that curve up and inward to a button-like flat top. The device, available in black or white with either a steel or bamboo base, could easily be mistaken for a diffuser or air freshener. 

The Earzz pairs with an app on your phone where you can select the sounds that it listens out for from a constantly updated library of pre-trained options: a baby crying, a knock at the door, a cat meowing, and so on. The standard Earzz can listen to three selected sounds at a time, but you can swap sounds out from the library as needed. The one thing the Earzz won't listen to is speech and conversations, and Earzz highlights that this is intentional as it is a device "designed to preserve privacy."

The devices aren't cheap (around £85 each, or £60 if you pre-order), and they are only available on Kickstarter* (the project is fully funded and at a relatively mature stage). The convenience you gain with Earzz over something like Sound notifications on your phone is that with Sound notifications, you would need to have your phone on you and be close enough for the phone to pick up the sound. With the Earzz device, you can leave them where they'll pick up the sound, and it doesn't matter where you are, you'll receive the notification. So, for example, you can be in bed with your morning cuppa and get a notification that the cat is meowing at the back door to be let out.

(*Kickstarter is a website where people can crowd-fund projects through individual pledges, but the products are not guaranteed to reach the manufacturer and there is no guarantee you'll get your money back if they don't, but it's a great way of supporting projects you believe in if you have the money to be able to do so.)

More resources for World Hearing Day