Afrikaans live captions and productivity tool for everyday conversations
For deaf and hard of hearing people.
coming soon
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Everything you need to follow Afrikaans everyday conversations
Four tools built for deaf and hard of hearing Afrikaans speakers.
Captions any conversation in real time
- Word by word, as the person speaks
- Works in noisy places — counters, streets, busy rooms
- Any accent, any pace
- No lip reading needed
Everyday conversations in any language
- Translates as they speak, not after
- Each person speaks their own language
- Handles mid-sentence switches
- 60+ languages, no setup
Save any conversation for later
- Record and get the full transcript
- Organized by speaker
- Read, copy, search, share
- Any language, any audio
Key points from any exchange
- Important points extracted automatically
- Works on any saved transcript
- Organized into clear sections
- Nothing gets missed
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreEvery situation covered
Designed for the real moments that matter — not just quiet controlled environments.
Apteek counter, poskantoor window, supermarket checkout, munisipaliteit desk. Staff speak fast in Afrikaans and move on. Captio AI shows what they said before the moment passes.
Sunday family braai, birthday lunch, neighbours around the table. Multiple generations, fast Afrikaans, Cape and inland varieties mixing. Captio AI captions whoever is speaking.
Asking for directions in the dorp, chatting with a buurman, meeting someone at the mark. People who speak at full conversational pace. Captio AI captions anyone near you.
Koffiebreek conversation, a quick question in the gang, catch-up before a vergadering. The moments South African workplaces run on. Captio AI keeps you in those conversations.
Huisdokter reception, munisipaliteit counter, bank branch, Sassa office. Formal vocabulary, fast delivery, no repeat expected. Captio AI transcribes everything said.
Bus driver calling stops, taxi rank conversation, asking at a stasie. Situations where you need to understand fast. Captio AI covers you anywhere on the move.
Most accurate and fastest models
word accuracy
independent benchmark, 2025
real-time captions
first word appears as you speak
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Download on theApp Store
Built for conversations that don't wait
Captions as they speak, not after
Captio AI shows each word as it is spoken. You read what the person is saying while they are still saying it — not after they have finished and moved on.
No lip reading needed
You do not need to face the speaker or position yourself to see their mouth. Captio AI picks up speech from any direction — across a counter, at a table, in a busy street.
Works through background noise
Restaurants, pharmacies, busy streets, crowded waiting rooms. Captio AI separates speech from background noise so captions stay accurate where everyday conversations actually happen.
Follows any conversation
One person or six. Captio AI captions whoever is speaking at any moment — so you follow the thread at a dinner table or keep up with a counter exchange without losing track.
Any accent, any pace
People do not slow down or enunciate for you. Captio AI handles fast talkers, regional accents, and casual speech — the way people actually talk in real life.
Any language, no setup
When someone speaks a language you do not know, switch to Live Translator. They speak their language — you read in yours. No configuration needed. Works in 60+ languages.
Why Afrikaans is hard to understand
SASL only recognised in 2023
- South African Sign Language became an official language only in 2023 — decades after deaf Afrikaans speakers needed it
- South African Sign Language (SASL) was added as South Africa's 12th official language through a Constitutional Amendment Act passed in 2023. Deaf South Africans — including the large community of Afrikaans-speaking deaf people — waited decades for this recognition. Even with constitutional status, the practical infrastructure to support everyday accessibility remains years behind the legal framework.
Fast Cape Afrikaans speech
- Cape Town and Western Cape Afrikaans is spoken fast and with Cape Malay-influenced phonemes
- Afrikaans has significant dialect variation. Cape Town Afrikaans — influenced by Cape Malay, Nama, and Khoekhoe — has phoneme patterns that differ substantially from Boland or northern Afrikaans. Everyday Cape Town street speech is fast and colloquial, using slang and borrowings from other Cape languages. A deaf person who has calibrated lip-reading to one variety will struggle with another.
Namakwaland and rural dialects
- Rural Northern Cape and Namakwaland Afrikaans differs strongly from urban varieties
- Afrikaans spoken in the Namakwaland, Northern Cape, and Karoo regions of South Africa has its own distinct pace and phoneme patterns, shaped by the Khoekhoe and Nama-influenced Afrikaans of these communities. For a deaf person whose family spans urban Cape Town and rural Northern Cape, these regional differences create different lip-reading challenges within the same language.
Braai and outdoor social culture
- The braai is the social centre of Afrikaans life — and it is the noisiest possible outdoor environment
- The braai (barbecue) is the defining social institution of Afrikaans life — long, outdoor, informal gatherings with multiple generations talking simultaneously, background noise from fire and wind, and people moving around constantly. For a deaf or hard of hearing Afrikaans speaker, the braai is the event that defines belonging — and it is one of the most challenging acoustic environments for hearing loss.
Noise-induced hearing loss
- South Africa has elevated rates of noise-induced hearing loss from mining and industrial environments
- South Africa's mining and industrial sectors have created elevated rates of occupational noise-induced hearing loss — over 1.1 million South Africans are estimated to have noise-induced hearing loss. For Afrikaans-speaking communities historically connected to farm and mining labour, this creates higher-than-average rates of adult-onset hearing loss that arrives without preparation or support infrastructure.
Download for free
Download on theApp Store3.4 million South Africans with hearing loss. Afrikaans the dominant home language among deaf children. SASL only constitutionally recognised in 2023.
Approximately 3.4 million South Africans — about 6% of the population — experience some degree of hearing loss, and an estimated 20% of South Africans experience at least mild hearing difficulty, according to the National Centre for Persons with Disabilities. Research in the Western Cape found that Afrikaans was the home language of 50.8% of deaf children in the sample — making it the dominant language of the deaf child population in South Africa. For deaf and hard of hearing Afrikaans speakers, daily life plays out at the braai, the boeremark, the church social, and the family Sunday table — settings that carry no captioning, no sign language, and no formal accessibility provision.
South African Sign Language was added as South Africa's 12th official language through a Constitutional Amendment Act signed in 2023 — a landmark step decades in the making. Before this, deaf South Africans had no constitutional language right. Even now, SASL recognition has not yet translated to interpreter availability in everyday informal settings. Over 1.1 million South Africans suffer from noise-induced hearing loss — many in Afrikaans-speaking farming and industrial communities — arriving at hearing loss without preparation, infrastructure, or accessible daily life.
Research published in the South African Journal of Communication Disorders and PMC consistently documents that deaf and hard of hearing South African children face late diagnosis, limited schooling in SASL, and significant barriers in all everyday settings. The braai — the defining Afrikaans social institution — is also an outdoor, wind-affected, multigenerational noise environment where hearing loss creates total exclusion from the event that most defines Afrikaans community belonging. Captio AI captions Afrikaans speech in real time — including Cape Afrikaans, Namakwaland varieties, and the fast colloquial speech of everyday South African life — so the braai, the market, and the family table are no longer settings you experience from the outside.
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreWhat you hear stays with you.
Gone the moment it ends
Captio AI processes your audio in real time and discards it immediately. Nothing is recorded. Nothing is kept.
Not a product
Your conversations are not something Captio AI sells, shares, or monetizes — to anyone, for any reason.
Not used to train anything
What you say in a doctor's appointment or a job interview never ends up in a training dataset. Not ours. Not anyone else's.
Private by default
Download on theApp StoreCaptio AI supports 60+ languages
People love Captio AI
"The braai is everything in our family. Loud, outdoor, everyone talking at once. Captio AI captions who is saying what. I belong at the braai now."
"Cape Afrikaans moves fast. Captio AI keeps up. The boeremark and the corner store are errands I do completely alone now."
"Namakwaland Afrikaans sounds different from Cape Town Afrikaans. Captio AI handles both. Visiting family in the Northern Cape is a conversation I actually follow."
"Church Sunday is the social centre of our week. The conversations after the service are fast. Captio AI captions them. I participate fully now."
"The braai is everything in our family. Loud, outdoor, everyone talking at once. Captio AI captions who is saying what. I belong at the braai now."
"Cape Afrikaans moves fast. Captio AI keeps up. The boeremark and the corner store are errands I do completely alone now."
"Namakwaland Afrikaans sounds different from Cape Town Afrikaans. Captio AI handles both. Visiting family in the Northern Cape is a conversation I actually follow."
"Church Sunday is the social centre of our week. The conversations after the service are fast. Captio AI captions them. I participate fully now."
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreFrequently asked questions
Follow any conversation in Afrikaans.
Captio AI is free to start
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store