NALscribe: What It Does and What You Need

Checked November 10, 2026. Next full check February 2027.

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A live captioning app from a hearing research laboratory.

At a glance

What it does

• Writes real-time captions of speech.
• Works offline, after you download a language.
• Clears the screen on its own, with privacy settings you choose.
• Offers large captions, a dark background and VoiceOver support.
• Lets you save, edit and share transcripts.
• Translates between 12 languages on iOS 15 or later.

What you need

• An iPhone or iPad with iOS 14 or later.

Good to know

• The listing says offline mode needs a downloaded language model.
• The listing shows an English profanity filter.

This guide is general information. It does not diagnose hearing loss and it does not replace a hearing evaluation. An app cannot tell you why you hear less. An audiologist can.

More in live captions

• Google Live Transcribe

  Google LLC

  Turns speech around you into text on an Android phone.

  No costAndroid

• Live Transcribe (Mighty Fine Apps)

  Mighty Fine Apps LLC

  An iPhone app that writes speech as text, with several caption modes.

  No cost to download, paid optionsiPhone, iPad

• Ava

  Transcense, Inc.

  Captions group talk and shows who is speaking.

  No-cost tier and paid plansiPhone, iPad, Android

• Live Captions (iPhone)

  Apple

  Captions audio on your iPhone and talk around you.

  Built iniPhone, iPad

Where NALscribe fits

• Talk in the room
• Meetings and lectures

Compare NALscribe with another app

• Ava vs NALscribe

Read more on our site

• Hearing better on phones and captions
• Noisy rooms and distance
• How to talk with someone who has hearing loss
• What is Auracast?

Questions to bring to your visit

Write these on your phone or print this page. Bring them to your hearing evaluation.

• Which captions can I read at a glance in a group?
• Can my hearing aids stream sound while I read captions?
• Which places near me have a loop system or Auracast?

Sources

We read these pages on November 10, 2026. Prices and phone requirements change, so check the listing before you install.

• NALscribe on the App Store