Estonian live captions and productivity tool for job interviews
For deaf and hard of hearing people.
coming soon
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Everything you need to follow Estonian job interviews
Four tools built for deaf and hard of hearing Estonian speakers.
Read the question before you answer
- Every word appears in real time as the interviewer speaks
- Works in person, on video calls, and on the phone
- Discreet — runs quietly on your phone
- No asking for repeats
For interviews in another language
- Captions and translates in real time
- For international employers or roles abroad
- 60+ languages, no setup
- Follow every question in the language you think in
Review the interview afterwards
- Record and transcribe to revisit questions and your answers
- Useful for preparing for follow-up rounds
- Identify what you want to clarify in a second interview
- Works on any recording
Key topics and questions extracted
- Main themes and questions pulled from any interview transcript
- Useful for post-interview reflection and follow-up
- Organised into sections
- Works on any saved recording
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreEvery situation covered
Designed for the real moments that matter — not just quiet controlled environments.
Estonian corporate interviews in Tallinn use standard northern Estonian. Captio AI captions the interviewer's speech in real time so you can focus entirely on your answers, not on tracking the three-way quantity system.
Video interviews over Teams or Zoom are standard at Estonian companies and tech firms in Tallinn and Tartu. Captio AI captions the call audio in real time over any compressed connection.
Initial phone screens at Estonian firms are conducted in standard Estonian. Captio AI captions the recruiter's speech live without a video feed.
Panel interviews in Estonia may include speakers from Tartu, Pärnu, or southern Estonia using regional features. Captio AI handles all varieties in the same room.
Estonian tech and business companies, particularly in the Tallinn digital sector, often conduct rounds in English. Captio AI covers Estonian and English in the same interview without any mode change.
Group assessment exercises at Estonian employers involve collaborative tasks in Estonian. Captio AI helps you follow every speaker and every question across the group.
Most accurate and fastest models
word accuracy
independent benchmark, 2025
real-time captions
first word appears as you speak
Download for free
Download on theApp Store
Built for the room where a missed word has real consequences
Read the full question before you answer
Every word appears on screen as the interviewer speaks. You read the question completely before responding — nothing guessed, nothing reconstructed.
Works in person and on any call format
In-person interviews, video calls, phone screens. Place the phone on the table or point it toward the audio — Captio AI handles every format.
Discreet by design
The app runs quietly on your phone. Place it on the table or hold it naturally. No explanation needed, no drawing attention to the accommodation.
No asking for repeats
Asking an interviewer to repeat a question signals uncertainty. Captio AI means you never need to — you read it in real time and answer with confidence.
Any language
For international roles, multilingual panels, or interviews conducted in a second language. Live Translator captions and translates in real time so language is never the barrier.
Private by default
Interview conversations are sensitive. Captio AI processes audio in real time and discards it immediately — nothing is stored, nothing is shared.
Why Estonian is hard to understand
Three-way quantity system
- Short, long, and overlong — all look the same
- Estonian has a unique three-way phonemic quantity distinction in both vowels and consonants: short (Q1), long (Q2), and overlong (Q3). Three durations that change meaning, produced with no visible lip shape difference. This system is found in very few languages in the world and creates systematic ambiguity that cannot be resolved through lip-reading.
Nine vowel phonemes
- A dense vowel space
- Estonian has nine vowel phonemes — including front rounded vowels like /y/ (ü) and /ø/ (ö) absent from English and most neighbouring languages. These require specific lip shapes that are easily confused with unrounded front vowels, creating visual minimal pairs that are genuinely ambiguous.
25 diphthongs
- Complex vowel transitions throughout words
- Estonian has up to 25 diphthongs in native vocabulary. Each is a gliding movement between two vowel positions, and in fast speech many of these transitions reduce or assimilate. A deaf reader tracking lip shapes faces a continuous stream of compound vowel movements that compress under natural interview pace.
Southern Estonian (Võro) variety
- A distinct linguistic variety in the south
- Southern Estonian — including Võro — is distinct enough from standard northern Estonian to be considered a separate language by some linguists. An interviewer from Tartu or Võrumaa may use phonological features entirely absent from the standard Estonian a deaf reader prepared on.
Estonian–Russian switching
- Two languages in Tallinn workplaces
- Estonia has a substantial Russian-speaking community, and in Tallinn professional settings, speakers may switch between Estonian and Russian depending on the organisation and the interviewers. Both language streams can appear in the same interview.
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreHearing loss and employment in Estonia
Estonia has built one of Europe's most digitally advanced economies, yet for deaf and hard of hearing Estonians, the leap from digital infrastructure to accessible employment remains incomplete. The Estonian Association of the Deaf (Eesti Kurdide Liit) has documented that while Estonian Sign Language received formal legal recognition in 2007, the practical provision of communication accommodation in job interviews — captioning, interpretation, or relay services — is inconsistently applied across employers. Most deaf candidates attend interviews unaided.
Eurostat disability employment data for the Baltic states consistently shows employment gaps of 15 to 25 percentage points between workers with disabilities and those without. For those with hearing loss specifically, the gap is driven by recruitment barriers: a candidate who cannot follow interview questions accurately cannot demonstrate their actual competence, regardless of their qualifications. The accommodation that would close this specific gap is rarely proactively offered.
The WHO World Report on Hearing (2021) estimated the global annual cost of unaddressed hearing loss at over USD 980 billion, with working-age adults bearing a disproportionate share in economies where digital skills are valued but communication accommodation in recruitment lags behind. For deaf and hard of hearing job seekers in Tallinn, Tartu, and Pärnu, Captio AI provides real-time captions the moment the interviewer speaks — in Estonian or English — without an interpreter and without advance disclosure.
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
"Estonian's three vowel lengths were impossible through lip-reading — all three look the same. Captio AI captures the distinction from the audio. Every interview question in Tallinn finally made sense."
"The Tartu interview used southern Estonian features I wasn't prepared for. Captio AI handled them accurately without any adjustment. I didn't miss a question."
"The technical round switched into English. Captio AI tracked both Estonian and English in real time. I walked out of the interview knowing I'd heard every question from start to finish."
"Video interview with compressed audio — Estonian's overlong vowels that are hard enough to catch in person became impossible. Captio AI captured everything correctly. A fair interview, for once."
"Estonian's three vowel lengths were impossible through lip-reading — all three look the same. Captio AI captures the distinction from the audio. Every interview question in Tallinn finally made sense."
"The Tartu interview used southern Estonian features I wasn't prepared for. Captio AI handled them accurately without any adjustment. I didn't miss a question."
"The technical round switched into English. Captio AI tracked both Estonian and English in real time. I walked out of the interview knowing I'd heard every question from start to finish."
"Video interview with compressed audio — Estonian's overlong vowels that are hard enough to catch in person became impossible. Captio AI captured everything correctly. A fair interview, for once."
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreFrequently asked questions
Hear every question in Estonian.
Captio AI is free to start
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store