Google’s Live Transcribe has been pretty useful in bridging the connection between hearing people and deaf or hard of hearing individuals. It provides real-time, real-world transcriptions so that both parties will be able to communicate through various means and platforms as it’s available for 1.8 billion Android devices, according to Google. The feature is now getting a new update which brings a couple of improvements to make technology more accessible to those who need a little extra help.
Aside from transcribing speech, Live Transcribe will also now be able to show you sound events. It will indicate if a dog is barking, someone is laughing, applause, sound of a speeding vehicle, and other non-speech audio that will be helpful to know for those who cannot hear or are hard of hearing. The sound events will appear as part of the transcription in the bottom part of the screen.
You will also now be able to copy and save the transcripts from Live Transcribe. They will be stored on your device for three days and so you will be able to copy and paste them somewhere else before they “disappear”. This will also benefit the secondary users of the feature, like those who are learning a language for the first time and even journalists and students who need to capture notes.
The audio visualization indicator is now also bigger so you will be able to see the background audio easier. The Live Transcribe feature and the subsequent updates it has received is Google’s way of making sure that smartphones are useful not just for those who have all their senses functioning but for those who are differently-abled as well.
Google has promised to release more features so that the accessibility community and the people who need to communicate them will be aided with these tools and updates. As always, we’ll keep you updated with all the changes that they’ll be bringing.
