Expanded discussion on Innocaptions-presented by Matt Goncalves, Senor Marketing Director 1/16/2025

Logo for innocaption dot com.Jan 16, 2025 – InnoCaption free smartphone captioning app explained by Matt Goncalves, Senior Marketing Director.

InnoCaption is a free mobile app for the deaf and hard of hearing, offering real-time captions for phone calls using live stenographers (similar to CART). There is an option for automatic speech recognition, and users can switch captioning mode during calls. Both sides of the conversation are captioned – this is unique to InnoCaption. This app allows clear communication for personal, business, and essential conversations. They provide this without cost to these users in the USA thanks to FCC funding.

We had a good turnout for this event. For those who missed it, the 1 hour 24 minute

Zoom recording is available here via passcode xk06s5*q.

They come to the national HLAA convention regularly. Privacy of callers is protected by law. A recent survey indicated that users’ listening fatigue was cut in half after only 3 months of calls. InnoCaption can only be used for incoming and outgoing calls where the user is deaf or hard of hearing; NOT for in-person conversations.

Matt explained how use of the app is available only in the USA to deaf and folks with hearing loss, due to FCC regulations. This makes the registration process a bit more complex than most apps. *** important regulation: Innocaption canNOT be used to caption in-person conversations. It can be used for incoming and outgoing phone calls (including group Zoom or G-Meets) ***. Also, use CART when that is available since it is accessible to more folks.

InnoCaption was created by a person with profound hearing loss in 2016, along with a few others, and who used hearing aids from age 4 then much later got cochlear implants Thus they know why accurately captioning phone calls is important to us. They take pride in responding quickly to feedback about their app. Matt has been with them since they created the InnoCaption app. You can email Matt with any questions, or contact their support folks.

Whenever possible they give the user a choice of how they want the app to perform. Many current features were implemented based on user feedback. Early on they ensured that you can use your current phone number for incoming calls, but there is also an option to use a different number.

Recently InnoCaption added a way to make calls via internet browsers; check out their “Web” option. Thus you can make calls via iPads , tablets, laptop computers, etc. This also allows folks with vision difficulty to see much bigger captions during their phone calls. Note that their Android app has been upgraded with everything they had for iPhones. Another popular option is the use of transcripts to review what was discussed during long conversations, or to find an address shared in a prior call. These transcripts are available only to the person using the app; it is not stored anywhere but on your phone. Ditto for voicemail transcripts. Calls can be translated in about 20 languages, however, the entire call must be shown in a single language. There can be more than 2 people on a single call.

They continue to hire more human captioners to provide more coverage for their users, as well as more support personnel.

The privacy of everyone on the call is protected by law; the live captioners cannot intervene – they can only type what the callers are actually saying or describe sounds they hear. For instance, they can do that automated captioning does not is tell user when a dog is barking in the background, or other non-verbal things that may be important to the conversation (e.g. dog mentioned if talking about pets). Automated captioning tends to be slightly faster but less accurate.

Finally, a survey revealed that before using InnoCaption the average effort required by caller was 7/10 (high). After using the app for 3 months, the effort reduced to 3/10 (low). This is often referred to as listening fatigue.