Vigilant Ear: Deaf Sound Alert

Vigilant Ear: Deaf Sound Alert

Direction, Distance & Noise

4 ratings
2 reviews
Free
In-App Purchases

Details

Released
May 18, 2026
Updated
October 11, 2026

Features

Vigilant Ear: Deaf Sound Alert video #1 for iPhone
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Vigilant Ear: Deaf Sound Alert screenshot #10 for iPhone
Vigilant Ear: Deaf Sound Alert screenshot #11 for iPhone
Vigilant Ear: Deaf Sound Alert screenshot #12 for iPhone
Vigilant Ear: Deaf Sound Alert screenshot #13 for iPhone
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About

This app provides visual and haptic alerts for various sounds, including speech, alarms, and weather warnings, designed for Deaf and hard-of-hearing users. It uses on-device machine learning to identify sounds, estimate their direction and distance, and offers real-time transcription of nearby speech.

✓Visual and haptic sound alerts
✓Real-time speech transcription
✓On-device sound identification
✓Directional sound guidance
✓Severe weather alerts
✓Apple Watch integration
✓Siri and Shortcuts support
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What's New in Vigilant Ear

1.1.12

October 11, 2026

NEW — The map now shows a distance scale at the bottom, always visible, so you can tell how far away things are. NEW — Wind on the map: whenever the weather radar is on, light arrows show which way the wind is blowing, anywhere in the world, updated every hour. BETTER — Captions in loud places. On iPhones with the enhanced captions, an improved speech model makes far fewer mistakes in noise: in a loud bar on an iPhone 17, German captions went from 45% of words wrong to 20%, and Russian from 19% of characters wrong to 9%. Quiet rooms gain too: German from 8.4% to 6.4%, Russian from 5.6% to 3.2%. The same model captions English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. It replaces the old one by itself over Wi-Fi (about 730 MB). BETTER — The first word of a sentence is no longer cut off, and captions are more accurate overall: on an iPhone 17, word errors fell from 6.7% to 5.4% in English and from 10.5% to 8.9% in German. FIXED — Long captioning sessions no longer use more and more memory (about 135 MB more each hour before). FIXED — A phone call that takes the microphone no longer closes Vigilant Ear. Listening comes back by itself when the call ends. BETTER — Weather warnings show their official title in your language. In Arabic, a "Tropical Storm Watch" is no longer translated word for word into a wristwatch. NEXT in the warning panel steps through several warnings. BETTER — Arabic captions are far more accurate on iPhones with at least 6 GB of memory that don't use the enhanced captions: the same recording went from 43% to 24% word errors on an iPhone 17. Hindi captions spell better there too, with character errors down from 25% to 15%. BETTER — On an iPhone set to another country's region, German, French and Italian captions now use their own country's speech recognizer. German word errors fell from 25% to 9%. FIXED — The last sentence before a pause no longer goes missing. BETTER — Vigilant Ear does far less work when nothing is happening: about 80% less on the main thread at idle on iPhone 16 and 17. BETTER — Traditional Chinese uses Taiwan wording, and several Russian, Arabic and French labels are corrected. BETTER — Remote Link's video is bigger, and captions stay clear of it. IMPORTANT — Linked phones (Constellation) are now always encrypted. Phones running Vigilant Ear 1.1.6 or older need to update to join. And, miscellaneous improvements to base functionality.

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Subscriptions & In-App Purchases

$5.99

Power Pack+

One-time permanent unlock of premium features.

User reviews

Amazing game changer for hearing impaired

Very intelligent app. It’s very sensitive to alert to many of the audible sounds that keep me safe and help me navigate

Useful App

I found the app to be incredibly helpful in detecting unexpected sounds and conversations. As someone who’s older, I feel more secure using this app to become more aware of my surroundings.

FAQ

Does Vigilant Ear have ads?

Vigilant Ear does not contain advertisements. It is designed to be an unobtrusive aid for its users.

What sounds can Vigilant Ear detect?

Vigilant Ear can identify over 300 everyday and emergency sounds, including alarms, sirens, knocks, a crying baby, severe weather, and nearby speech. It also offers earthquake alerts.

Is Vigilant Ear a certified safety device?

Vigilant Ear is an experimental research and accessibility aid, not a certified or life-saving device. Users should always maintain their own situational awareness.

How does Vigilant Ear handle privacy?

All listening, transcription, translation, and sound classification run entirely on your device. Audio or telemetry data never leaves your device, except for a short audio fingerprint for Music ID to Apple's Shazam service.

What devices does Vigilant Ear support?

Vigilant Ear is supported on Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad, offering alerts on your Apple Watch even when your iPhone is asleep.

What are the 'Power Pack+' features in Vigilant Ear?

The optional Power Pack+ includes features like on-device translation of captions, Constellation for linking nearby iPhones for a more precise sound picture, and Music & Sound ID to name songs. It is free to try for 90 days.

How often is Vigilant Ear updated?

The latest version of Vigilant Ear is 1.0.18, last updated on August 25, 2026. Updates typically include new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements.

Can Vigilant Ear transcribe speech from multiple people?

Yes, Vigilant Ear's Speaker Mode provides live captions that transcribe nearby speech, separating it by speaker. This transcription is done entirely on-device.