Ear to Eye

Live captions that stay in one spot.

For people who read well but can't reliably follow speech, for example after a stroke, or with aphasia or an auditory processing disorder.

Example: a doctor's-office voicemail, shown as text with no sound.

Here the words come in short phrases, at about 130 words a minute. In the app you choose the speed, one word or phrases, the text size and the font.

The whole message

Hi, this is Maria calling from Doctor Patel's office.

I'm calling about your appointment on Tuesday.

The doctor has to move it, because of an emergency at the hospital.

We have an opening on Thursday at ten in the morning.

There is also one on Friday at two thirty.

Which day works better for you?

Captions that scroll ask for two jobs at once: read the words, and chase them across the screen. Ear to Eye puts every word in the same spot, so the only job left is reading.

Download on the App Store

$2.99, once. No subscription or in-app purchases, no account, and we collect nothing.

iPhone and iPad (iOS 17 or later) · Mac (macOS 14 or later)

How it works

Tap a picture to see it full size.

  1. The Ready screen: “Point the phone at whoever is speaking and tap Listen,” above an empty transcript area and the Listen button.

    Point it at the speech

    Someone talking in the room, the TV, or a call on speaker on another device. Tap Listen.

  2. Ear to Eye while listening: the words “at the hospital.” shown large in a box at the top of the screen, with the transcript below and the same words highlighted in it.

    Read in one spot

    Words appear in the same spot as they are spoken. If the speaker gets ahead, the app catches up while they pause.

  3. The transcript of the doctor's-office voicemail, split into short paragraphs, one sentence each.

    Read it again

    The full text builds up below. Missed something? Tap any sentence and it plays again in the same spot.

  4. The transcript saved as a PDF titled “Ear to Eye Transcript”, with the date and each sentence as its own paragraph.

    Keep it

    Save or share the whole conversation as a PDF, in tidy paragraphs: what the doctor said, a family call, anything worth keeping.

How it's different from scrolling captions

Your iPhone's free, built-in Live Captions also captions speech around you, not just calls, and it's worth trying first. Ear to Eye is for people who find moving text hard to follow.

Scrolling captions Ear to Eye
The text moves up or across the screen, and your eyes follow it. Every word or short phrase lands in the same spot. Your eyes stay still.
Text appears as fast as it is recognized. Words are paced for reading, and catch up when the speaker pauses.
Missed a line? Scroll back and look for it, if you can. Tap any sentence to see it again.
Many caption tools don't keep a copy. Save the whole conversation as a PDF, in paragraphs.
The idea behind it

Showing words one at a time in one spot is an old idea, called rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). It got a bad name as a speed-reading trick. At 500 or more words a minute, people understand less, because they can't glance back.

Ear to Eye uses the same kind of display for a different job. Conversation runs at about 130 to 200 words a minute, far slower than speed reading. The point isn't speed. It's taking away the work of chasing moving text with your eyes.

The transcript gives back the chance to look back and re-read. And the words appear as they are spoken, so what you hear, even unclearly, and what you read arrive together.

What's in it

What feels easier differs from person to person, so most of it is yours to set.

  • One word or phrases

    Show one word at a time, or a few words together. Phrases is where it starts; switch any time.

  • A letter that never moves

    In One word mode, one letter of each word is marked and never moves, so you always know where to look.

  • Your speed, size and font

    Set the speed, the text size and the font. Turn on Skip filler words to leave out “um” and “uh”. Reset to defaults goes back to the easy settings.

  • Paced to the speaker

    Long words stay up a little longer, and there's a short rest at the end of each sentence. If the speaker gets ahead, the app catches up while they pause.

  • Phone calls

    iOS doesn't let any app hear a call on the same phone. Ear to Eye notices this and shows you how to use a second device, instead of just staying silent.

Settings: speed at 130 words a minute, One word or Phrases, a text size slider, font choices (Serif, Sans, Rounded, Mono and more), Skip filler words (um, uh), and Reset to defaults.

The honest print

A communication aid, not a medical device

Ear to Eye makes no clinical claims. We're still learning, with real users, whether one word at a time helps or gets in the way for different readers. That's why one word or phrases is your choice, not ours.

It won't catch every word

Speech recognition makes mistakes, especially with background noise or people talking over each other. Check important details with the speaker.

Your words stay yours

No account, no ads, no analytics, and no servers of ours. Transcripts stay on your device unless you export them. Apple's speech recognition may process audio on Apple's servers, depending on your device and settings. Read the privacy policy.

Captioning a call

If you caption a real call using a second device, treat it like recording: some US states require everyone on the call to agree. Setup help is on the support page.

Get it

Ear to Eye is on the App Store now: one app for iPhone, iPad and Mac, $2.99 once.

Download on the App Store

If you or someone you care for lives with aphasia or an auditory processing disorder, tell us how it works for you. Feedback from real use is the whole point.