Google launched the Live Transcribe app back in 2019 to aid the hearing impaired in their social interactions. The app makes everyday conversations easier by converting speech to text in real-time. It supports over 70 languages and dialects, and it also gives users the option to add specific words that Google might not recognize and alert them if someone in the vicinity calls their name. While these features make the app a great tool for the hearing impaired, it has one minor issue. The app currently requires an active internet connection to perform all these features. But Google is preparing to address that in a future update.
An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.
A teardown of version 4.6 of the Live Transcribe app suggests that Google is adding offline transcription support to the app. New strings regarding the in-development feature reveal that it will allow users to download language packs for offline transcription. After downloading the language pack, users will be able to perform real-time transcription in that language, even while offline.
<string name="downloading_offline_pack_from_scribe">downloading_offline_pack_from_scribe</string>
<string name="language_pack_button_available_content_description">Downloaded %s</string>
<string name="language_pack_button_downloadable_content_description">Download %s to transcribe without internet</string>
<string name="language_pack_button_downloading_content_description">Downloading %s</string>
<string name="language_pack_downloading_no_network_error">"Can't download. No internet connection."</string>
<string name="param_transcribe_offline_off">off</string>
<string name="param_transcribe_offline_on">on</string>
<string name="pref_offline_transcription">pref_offline_transcription</string>
<string name="speech_offline_enabled">App is offline. Transcriptions and sound events are still available.</string>
<string name="speech_offline_enabled_sound_events_off">App is offline. Transcriptions are still available.</string>
As mentioned in the strings, the feature will let users download more than one language pack, which will prove beneficial for multilingual users. Note that the feature is still in development, and Google hasn't shared a release timeline at the moment. We'll make sure to let you know as soon as the feature starts rolling out with a future update.
It's worth noting that Live Transcribe v4.6 brings Material You dynamic coloring support on Android 12. However, it doesn't include any other Material You design changes.