Captio AI
🦻 Accessibility + 💻 Productivity App

Estonian live captions and productivity tool for everyday conversations

For deaf and hard of hearing people.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Captio AI app showing live captions

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Use Cases

Every situation covered

Designed for the real moments that matter — not just quiet controlled environments.

🏪Counter conversations

Apteek counter, post window, supermarket checkout, vallavalitsus desk. Staff speak fast in Estonian and move on. Captio AI shows what they said before the moment passes.

🍽️Group conversations

Sunday family lõuna, birthday celebration, naabrid gathering. Multiple generations, fast Estonian, Tallinn versus regional accents. Captio AI captions whoever is speaking.

👋Talking to strangers

Asking for directions in the city, chatting with a neighbour in the trepikoja, meeting someone at the turg. People who speak at full pace. Captio AI captions anyone near you.

Informal work moments

Kohvipaus conversation, a quick question in the koridoris, catch-up before a meeting. The moments Estonian workplaces run on. Captio AI keeps you in those conversations.

📋Appointments and admin

Perearst reception, vallavalitsus counter, bank branch, Sotsiaalkindlustusamet office. Formal vocabulary, fast delivery, no repeat expected. Captio AI transcribes everything said.

🚉Getting around

Bus and tram announcements in Tallinn, asking at a raudteejaam, taxi conversation. Situations where you need to understand the first time. Captio AI covers you anywhere.

Performance

Most accurate and fastest models

Estonian
90.4%

word accuracy

independent benchmark, 2025

< 200ms
you speak
captions

real-time captions

first word appears as you speak

Download for free

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Captio AI in everyday use
Why Captio AI

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.

Estonian

Why Estonian is hard to understand

Long compound words

  • Estonian builds very long words — and word boundaries vanish at speed
  • Estonian forms lengthy compound nouns by joining words together without spaces. Spoken at conversational pace, these compounds run together and word boundaries disappear. Lip-reading the segmentation of a long Estonian compound in real time is nearly impossible.

Interpreter shortage

  • 25 working interpreters for 1,500 first-language signers
  • Estonia has only 25 working sign language interpreters for approximately 1,500 deaf first-language signers. Even when a deaf person is legally entitled to an interpreter, one may simply not be available. In informal daily settings, the concept of entitled interpretation does not apply at all.

Counter interactions

  • Post office and pharmacy staff often face away while speaking
  • Omniva post offices and pharmacy counters involve staff who frequently face the counter, handle items, or look at a screen while speaking. Lip-reading depends on facing the speaker. When the speaker is turned away, nothing is accessible.

Rural transport

  • Regional buses outside Tallinn announce stops verbally only
  • Tallinn's tram and bus network has improving visual screens. Outside the capital, regional and rural buses announce stops verbally with no visual alternative. A deaf passenger on a route between towns has no reliable way to know where they are.

Family settings

  • Most deaf Estonians were born to hearing families — the family table is often inaccessible
  • The majority of deaf Estonians have hearing parents and siblings who did not learn Estonian Sign Language. Jõulud (Christmas), Jaanipäev (Midsummer night), and family meals are often uninterpreted events — the primary setting where exclusion is felt first and most persistently.

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The Challenge

43,500 deaf and hard of hearing people in Estonia. 25 interpreters.

Estonia has approximately 43,500 deaf and hard of hearing people — around 3.3% of the general population — with an estimated 1,500 deaf first-language signers of Estonian Sign Language (EVK). Applying the European self-reported hearing loss prevalence of 10.6% gives approximately 145,000 people with some degree of hearing loss. For those with significant hearing difficulty, daily life means the turg vendor whose words you cannot follow, the Omniva counter where the clerk is looking away, the family Jõulud table where everyone else caught the joke.

Estonian Sign Language received full official recognition on 1 March 2007 through the Language Act. Estonia has only 25 working sign language interpreters. For formal settings with legal entitlement, the maths do not work: 25 interpreters cannot cover 1,500 signers, let alone the broader deaf and hard of hearing population. For informal daily settings — the kohvik, the turg, the family table — there is no entitlement and no system.

Estonia's population is ageing, with hearing loss prevalence rising steeply after 55. The gap between the number of people navigating daily Estonian life without sound and the infrastructure to support them in informal settings is growing. Captio AI captions Estonian speech in real time — including fast compound words, regional varieties, and reduced informal forms — so the market, the café, and the family table are no longer settings you have to navigate alone.

Download for free

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Privacy

What 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.

100% PRIVATE

Private by default

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Reviews

People love Captio AI

"The turg on Saturday mornings is fast Estonian and nobody waits. Captio AI captions every vendor. The market is part of my Saturday now."

Liis K. 🇪🇪
liis.k***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Tallinn

"Tartu café culture matters to me. Group conversations in noisy kohvikud were always lost on me. Captio AI follows whoever I point it at. Coffee is social again."

Märt V. 🇪🇪
mart.v***@gmail.com
Deaf since childhood, Tartu

"Jõulud with the family — fast Estonian, everyone talking at once. Captio AI shows me every word. Christmas is a conversation I'm actually in."

Kati J. 🇪🇪
kati.j***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Pärnu

"Post office staff always seem to be looking at the screen when they talk. Captio AI captions them anyway. Quick errands stopped being stressful."

Rein T. 🇪🇪
rein.t***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Viljandi

"The turg on Saturday mornings is fast Estonian and nobody waits. Captio AI captions every vendor. The market is part of my Saturday now."

Liis K. 🇪🇪
liis.k***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Tallinn

"Tartu café culture matters to me. Group conversations in noisy kohvikud were always lost on me. Captio AI follows whoever I point it at. Coffee is social again."

Märt V. 🇪🇪
mart.v***@gmail.com
Deaf since childhood, Tartu

"Jõulud with the family — fast Estonian, everyone talking at once. Captio AI shows me every word. Christmas is a conversation I'm actually in."

Kati J. 🇪🇪
kati.j***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Pärnu

"Post office staff always seem to be looking at the screen when they talk. Captio AI captions them anyway. Quick errands stopped being stressful."

Rein T. 🇪🇪
rein.t***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Viljandi

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Follow any conversation in Estonian.

Captio AI is free to start

Download for free

Download on theApp Store