Dutch live captions and productivity tool for tv & media
For deaf and hard of hearing people.
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store
Everything you need to follow Dutch tv & media
Four tools built for deaf and hard of hearing Dutch speakers.
Captions anything playing in real time
- Point the phone toward the speaker and read along
- Works on any TV, laptop, tablet, or phone
- No subtitle file required — captions from the audio directly
- Faster than pre-generated subtitles for live content
Watch content in any language
- Foreign films, foreign news, foreign YouTube — all translated in real time
- They speak their language — you read in yours
- 60+ languages, no setup
- Works as content plays
Full transcript of any recording
- Upload a recording and get the complete written transcript
- For lectures, podcasts, talks, or any long-form content
- Searchable and copyable
- Any language, any format
Key points from any content
- Main ideas and takeaways from any transcript
- Useful for news, documentaries, and long-form content
- Organised into clear 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.
NPO and RTL run live news and sport that pre-generated subtitles can lag behind. Point Captio AI at your TV and read the Dutch as it is spoken, not several seconds behind the presenter.
Videoland, NLZiet, and Netflix vary in subtitle quality — private and streaming services often carry far less deaf-specific subtitling than the public broadcaster. Captio AI works as a consistent fallback for any Dutch show or film.
YouTube auto-captions for Dutch are often inaccurate and most social video has none. Point Captio AI at your phone and read accurate Dutch captions for any clip.
A foreign film, a foreign documentary, a non-Dutch channel. Live Translator captions and translates in real time so anything becomes watchable in Dutch as it plays.
Not every cinema showing has open captions. Hold Captio AI near the audio and read real-time Dutch captions of the dialogue discreetly from your seat.
Most Dutch podcasts have no transcript. Hold Captio AI near the audio or upload a recording, and read the whole episode in writing.
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 content that subtitles fail
Captions any content in real time
Point the phone toward any speaker — TV, laptop, tablet, cinema screen. Captio AI captions whatever is playing, regardless of whether that platform provides subtitles.
Faster than built-in subtitles for live content
Pre-generated subtitles lag behind live TV by several seconds. Captio AI captions in real time — so you read what is being said as it is being said.
Works on any screen or device
No integration required. Point the phone toward the audio source — the same approach works for a large TV, a laptop screen, a cinema, or a phone held at arm's length.
Any language, translated in real time
For foreign-language content, switch to Live Translator. It translates as content plays — so a French film, a German documentary, or a Japanese series all become watchable.
No subtitle file needed
Captio AI captions from the audio directly. No subtitle file, no platform support, no creator requirement. If audio plays, Captio AI can caption it.
More accurate than auto-generated captions
The industry average for AI-generated subtitles is a 10–15% word error rate — roughly 1 in 10 words wrong (3Play Media). Captio AI is built for accuracy in real-world audio conditions.
Why Dutch is hard to understand
Guttural g and ch
- Sounds scraped at the back of the throat
- Dutch is known for its guttural 'g' and 'ch', voiceless fricatives made at the back of the throat with no lip cue. On a TV drama or a news read, a deaf viewer sees nothing of these sounds, which appear constantly in Dutch and separate one word from another.
Large vowel and diphthong system
- Close vowels and diphthongs that look alike
- Dutch has around thirteen vowel qualities plus diphthongs like ui, eu, and ou, and long vowels are often diphthongised. Many sit close together on the lips, so on screen a deaf viewer cannot tell apart the vowel that changes a word.
Netherlands–Flemish divide
- Dutch and Belgian Flemish differ on screen
- Dutch-language film and TV span Netherlands Dutch and Belgian Flemish, which softens the guttural sounds and shifts several vowels. A deaf viewer calibrated to one variety finds the same words carry different shapes on a production from the other.
Final devoicing and clusters
- Word endings that lose voicing and pile up
- Dutch devoices final consonants and allows dense consonant clusters. The endings that carry grammatical detail are neutralised or compressed, so in a fast scene a deaf viewer loses exactly the part of the word that signals tense or number.
Dutch–English code-switching
- English dropped into Dutch content
- Dutch and Flemish content mixes English into Dutch constantly, given the region's high English fluency. A deaf viewer meets English phonology on the key word, then returns to Dutch, with no visual warning and no lip to read after a cut.
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreDutch public TV subtitles almost everything — private and streaming, far less
The Netherlands has around 2.6 million people with age-related hearing impairment, of whom roughly 1.3 million have moderate to severe loss, and Flanders adds a further Dutch-speaking population. Public broadcasting leads the world here: the NPO is legally required to subtitle 95% of its Dutch-language programming and in practice subtitles over 99%, with sign language on key news bulletins.
But the strong broadcast figures mask the gaps. Deaf advocates note that private channels and streaming services carry far less subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing than the public broadcaster; live programming can still lag; and social and short-video content is largely uncaptioned. A deaf viewer who steps outside the NPO — to a commercial channel, a streaming app, or YouTube — quickly meets content with no accessible captions at all.
Captio AI does not depend on the broadcaster or the platform. Point the phone at any screen — a live NPO bulletin, an RTL drama, a streaming film — and read Dutch captions in real time from the audio, whether or not that content was ever captioned.
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 NPO is great but the commercial channels and streaming apps barely caption for us. Captio AI captions the actual dialogue from the audio, in real time. It covers everything outside the public broadcaster."
"The guttural g gives me nothing on the lips and live subtitles still lag. Captio AI captions it in real time from the audio. The words finally line up with the picture."
"Flemish softens the sounds differently from Netherlands Dutch and Belgian captions are patchy. Captio AI captions the dialogue from the audio, whatever the variety. I follow the whole show now."
"Dutch YouTube mixes in English and the auto-captions mangle the clusters. Captio AI captions any clip accurately from the audio. It covers exactly the content the platforms do not."
"The NPO is great but the commercial channels and streaming apps barely caption for us. Captio AI captions the actual dialogue from the audio, in real time. It covers everything outside the public broadcaster."
"The guttural g gives me nothing on the lips and live subtitles still lag. Captio AI captions it in real time from the audio. The words finally line up with the picture."
"Flemish softens the sounds differently from Netherlands Dutch and Belgian captions are patchy. Captio AI captions the dialogue from the audio, whatever the variety. I follow the whole show now."
"Dutch YouTube mixes in English and the auto-captions mangle the clusters. Captio AI captions any clip accurately from the audio. It covers exactly the content the platforms do not."
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreFrequently asked questions
Watch anything in Dutch.
Captio AI is free to start
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store