Auvi vs Live Transcribe
Beloved by the deaf community — but what does it cost in privacy?
Key difference in one sentence: Live Transcribe (by Mighty Fine Apps) has earned a loyal following for its cloud-powered noise handling, but its App Store privacy label shows it tracks users for advertising and sends audio to cloud servers; Auvi achieves comparable accuracy on-device with no data collected and no subscription for core accessibility.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Auvi | Live Transcribe |
|---|---|---|
| Price | One-time purchase for core features. Optional add-on subscriptions. | $5–10/month or $50–80/year. Speaker identification ("Ultra" captions) at 1.5x the base rate. Pay-as-you-go hours at ~$1.50/hr. |
| Processing | Fully on-device. Audio never leaves your device. | Primarily cloud. Offline available for 9 languages only. |
| Privacy | No data collected. App Store privacy label verified: "No Data Collected". | Tracks users for advertising. Collects purchase history, contact info, user IDs, diagnostics per App Store label. |
| Speaker identification | Yes — included in Standard. Colour-coded speakers, on-device. | Yes — but as "Ultra" captions at 1.5x the subscription rate. Speaker ID costs extra. |
| Transcription languages | 40+ languages on-device. | 145 languages via cloud processing. |
| Accuracy in noisy environments | Good on-device accuracy. Designed for real-world use. | Excellent — cloud processing has a genuine edge in high-noise environments. "Freakish ability to lock in on a specific conversation" (reviewer quote). |
| Real-time translation | 31 languages on-device. Translation add-on subscription. | No real-time translation. |
| Scam detection | Yes — 25 phone scam categories + 10 tourist scam categories in 7 languages. | No. |
| Sound awareness | Yes — 15 environmental sounds with visual and haptic alerts. | No. |
| Accessibility features | 5 colour schemes (including high-contrast, yellow-on-black), 16–48pt font slider, haptic feedback, VoiceOver, colour-blind-friendly speaker palette. | Good accessibility features, but not to the same depth. |
| Transcript history & export | Yes — stored locally. Plus add-on subscription. | Yes — cloud-stored transcript history. |
| Internet required | Only for initial setup. Works fully offline anywhere. | Yes for cloud mode (best performance). Offline support for 9 languages only. |
| MDM / enterprise | Yes — Managed App Configuration for regulated industries. | No MDM support. |
| Apple Watch | Yes — live captions stream to your wrist. Start/stop from Watch. | No dedicated Watch app. |
| Battery usage | Efficient on-device processing. | Higher battery drain due to constant cloud data transmission. |
Why choose Auvi
- Your conversations are yours. Live Transcribe's App Store privacy label is explicit: it tracks users for advertising and collects contact information. For medical appointments, therapy, legal consultations, or any sensitive conversation, that's a real problem. Auvi processes everything on-device and collects nothing.
- No subscription for speaker identification. Live Transcribe charges 1.5x the standard rate for "Ultra" captions with speaker identification. Auvi includes speaker identification in the standard one-time purchase. Speaker colours should not be a premium upsell.
- Works when there's no internet. Live Transcribe users have reported losing captions at conferences with no WiFi, in rural areas, and on flights. One reviewer specifically noted: "If your approach depends on pushing a lot of bits up to the server… what happens when the server isn't accessible?" Auvi has no such dependency.
- Long-term cost. At $50–80/year, Live Transcribe costs $500–800 over ten years for a deaf person accessing it as an accessibility tool. Auvi's core features are a one-time purchase.
- Unique features nobody else has. Scam detection, sound awareness with environmental sound identification, safety keywords in 15 languages, on-device meeting summaries — Live Transcribe has none of these.
- No battery penalty. Live Transcribe's constant audio upload to cloud servers drains battery faster. Auvi's on-device processing is more efficient.
Why choose Live Transcribe
- Noise handling. Cloud processing genuinely handles loud, noisy environments better than on-device processing today. If you're frequently in restaurants, crowded events, or other high-noise settings, Live Transcribe may produce more accurate captions in those specific conditions.
- More languages. Live Transcribe supports 145 languages via cloud. Auvi supports 40+ on-device. For less common languages, Live Transcribe may be the only option.
- Large, established community. Live Transcribe has a large, active user community and over 6,500 App Store ratings. It has a long track record and many community resources, guides, and reviews.
- Cloud transcript history. If you want your transcripts accessible from multiple devices or platforms, cloud storage is more flexible than Auvi's local-only storage.
- Flexible pricing model. Pay-as-you-go hours may suit occasional users better than a subscription or one-time purchase.
Bottom line
Live Transcribe's cloud processing is genuinely better in extreme noise. That is a real advantage. If you spend most of your day in loud restaurants or crowded events, and you're comfortable with your audio going to cloud servers for advertising purposes, Live Transcribe may serve you better in those specific conditions.
For most everyday use — home, office, one-on-one conversations, quiet to moderate environments — Auvi provides comparable or better results while keeping everything private and avoiding a subscription that accumulates to hundreds of dollars over time.
The privacy difference is structural, not a setting: Live Transcribe is built on cloud processing that requires your audio to leave your device. That architecture cannot be changed with a toggle. Auvi's privacy is built into the same foundation.
Try Auvi free for 7 days
Full features, no commitment. All processing on your device — nothing sent to any server, ever.
Download on the App Store