Why the table is the hardest place
Hearing aids amplify everything, background noise included. Add several voices, people talking over each other and voices coming from across the table, and following along becomes tiring enough that many people stop trying.
What helps in practice
Put the phone on the table. Turn the screen so the bottom edge, where the microphone is, points at the people talking. Akoe’s live screen is drawn turned around by default for exactly this reason: when you read it, the microphone already faces the table.
- A noise button on the main screen for restaurants and busy rooms.
- A level meter that turns amber when voices are faint, with a hint to move the phone closer.
- Each line under the name of the person who said it, so a table of six does not turn into one stream of text.
- Text up to one and a half times bigger, a high-contrast option, and VoiceOver support.
I’ll call her tomorrow before ten.
Dile que llevamos el postre.
Dad, are you coming with us on Sunday?
What to expect
Akoe is not magic: a voice from the far end of a loud restaurant is still hard to hear. But it hears the room with people at different distances far better than the phone’s own captions do, and it writes what it heard instead of staying silent.
Akoe keeps none of it. The sound is sent while someone is talking so that it can be written down, and Akoe does not keep the sound or the words. The privacy page has the details.
Questions
Does it work in a restaurant?
Yes. Turn on the noise button, put the phone on the table and point its bottom edge at the people talking.
