Listen Mode
Understand anyone, in any language. Real-time translated captions for calls, meetings, and conversations.
What is Listen Mode?
Listen Mode captures audio from your Mac — both your microphone and system audio (what comes through your speakers) — and shows you real-time translated captions in a browser tab.
Think of it as a personal interpreter that sits quietly in the background. When someone speaks a language you don't fully understand, you glance at the captions and see everything translated to your preferred language.
Use Cases
📞 Phone Calls
Your Thai supplier calls you on LINE. You speak some Thai but miss details when they talk fast. Turn on Listen — see Chinese captions in real-time while the call continues normally.
💻 Video Meetings
Your team in Indonesia has a standup on Zoom. Most of it is in Indonesian. With Listen, you see everything translated to your language — without anyone knowing you're using a tool.
🎬 Videos & Podcasts
Watching a Japanese YouTube tutorial? Listen Mode captures the audio and shows you translated captions. Works with any app that plays audio through your Mac speakers.
🤝 In-Person Meetings
Sitting across from a client who speaks Vietnamese. Place your Mac on the table, turn on Listen. See captions on your screen while maintaining natural eye contact.
How to Use
- Click the VoxInk menu bar icon
- Click Listen
- First time: choose your subtitle language (the language YOU want to read)
- A browser tab opens with live captions
- Everything said through your mic and speakers appears as translated text
- Switch languages anytime from the dropdown in the caption page
- Click Stop Listening in the menu to end
Share with Others
The caption page has a unique URL. Copy it and share with meeting participants — they can:
- Open it on their phone or laptop
- Choose their own preferred language
- See the same conversation translated to their language
Supported Sources
Listen Mode works with any app that plays audio on your Mac:
- Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
- WeChat, LINE, WhatsApp calls
- FaceTime
- YouTube, Netflix, podcasts
- Phone calls (via Mac continuity)
- Any browser audio
Tips for Best Results
🎧 Use headphones
Headphones prevent your speakers from feeding back into the microphone, giving cleaner separation between your voice and the other person's.
🔇 Enable Noise Cancellation
Toggle noise cancellation on in the VoxInk menu. This filters out background voices and ambient noise from your microphone input.
🌐 Set your language first
Set your preferred caption language in the menu bar before starting. You can change it anytime during the session, but pre-setting avoids the first-time setup prompt.
Privacy
Listen Mode processes audio in real-time. When Privacy Mode is on, no transcript is saved after you stop. When Privacy Mode is off, the transcript is saved locally on your Mac for later reference.
Audio is never stored — it is streamed, processed, and discarded. Learn more about privacy →
Languages
Listen Mode supports 17 caption languages: English, 中文, ไทย, Tiếng Việt, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Filipino, العربية, اردو, Español, 日本語, 한국어, Français, Deutsch, Português, Русский, हिन्दी.
The audio input language is auto-detected — the speaker can speak any of 60+ languages recognized by our STT engine.
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