Questions people ask
What counts as a word?
The words actually spoken, on both sides. The translation itself is free: a sentence costs the same whether your language needs three words for it or thirty, and hearing it read aloud costs nothing. Chinese, Japanese and other languages written without spaces are counted by character.
How far does a free week go?
People speak around 130 to 150 words a minute and both sides count, so {words} words covers a handful of appointments: the questions and the instructions, not the small talk. If you run out in the middle of a visit the app says so, and the allowance comes back over the following week.
What does a “rolling” week mean?
Usage is counted from right now backwards over seven days rather than reset on a fixed day. Words spent at Monday’s appointment stop counting the next Monday, so the allowance returns a little at a time. There is no reset hour to wait for.
Should I still ask for the hospital interpreter?
Yes, and you do not have to choose between them. In the United States a hospital or clinic that receives federal funding must provide you a professional interpreter, by phone or in person, free of charge. Ask for one before you sign anything, and for consent, test results, or bad news. This app is a machine translation that nobody checks before you read it, so use it to follow what is happening, to prepare your questions, and to keep the record.
What happens to the audio and the transcript?
Speech goes to the speech recognition and translation services this deployment is set up to use, and the text comes back. This server keeps neither the audio nor the transcript: the visit stays in your browser until you clear it or save it. Your account holds your email address, whether you subscribe, and how many words each turn used. An uploaded recording is the one exception: the file is held on this server while it is being transcribed, and deleted when that finishes or shortly after.
How do I sign in?
With your email address. We send a link, you tap it, and you are in. There is no password to choose or forget, the same link creates your account the first time, and each link works once.
Can I cancel whenever I want?
Yes. Subscriptions are handled in Stripe’s billing portal, which you reach from inside the app, and cancelling takes effect without asking anyone. Your account goes back to the free plan rather than disappearing.
Can I take the record home?
That is what it is for. Saving writes every turn, in both languages, into a plain text file with the time of each entry: who spoke, what they said, and what it means. The visit also stays in your browser until you clear it, so you can read it again before you leave. Nothing is uploaded to this server for that to work.
Can I upload a recording I already have?
Yes. Tap the upload icon on the menu bar, next to Settings, and choose the audio or video file: MP3, WAV, M4A, Ogg or MP4. It is written down and translated sentence by sentence, the same as a live visit, and Export saves it as a text file with the time of every line. Uploading needs an account.
Does it work on my phone in the waiting room?
Yes. It runs in the browser with nothing to install, and the screen stays awake while a visit is open. The browser asks for the microphone the first time, and only allows it over a secure https address.
