Frequently Asked Questions

What is Thumbslate™, and how does it help people who are deaf or hard of hearing?

Thumbslate™ is a completely free communication accessibility app for iPhone and iPad. It converts spoken conversations into large, readable live subtitles, allowing people who are deaf or hard of hearing to follow what others are saying. Users can also type responses that Thumbslate™ speaks aloud, enabling private, two-way communication without requiring sign language or an interpreter. Thumbslate™ is especially useful during medical appointments, where understanding complex conversations is essential.

Is Thumbslate™ really free, without a credit card, email, account, or subscription?

Yes. Thumbslate™ is 100% free, forever. No credit card, no email address, no account, no registration, no subscription, and no setup. Simply download Thumbslate™, open the app, and start communicating. There are no limits on conversations or usage. Thumbslate™ is a gift from Anescribe, LLC, an American physician-owned company, to people with hearing impairments and those who care for them.

How does Thumbslate™ enable two-way conversations with people who are hearing impaired?

Thumbslate™ converts spoken words into live subtitles that appear on the iPhone or iPad screen. A hearing person can speak naturally while someone who is deaf or hard of hearing reads the conversation. The user can then type a reply, which Thumbslate™ speaks aloud. This allows both participants to communicate without requiring the hearing-impaired person to speak or the hearing person to know sign language.

Why use Thumbslate™ instead of an ordinary live captioning app?

Thumbslate™ was designed with healthcare communication in mind. It recognizes medical terminology, allowing healthcare professionals to speak naturally about medications, symptoms, procedures, and treatment plans while patients read live subtitles. Unlike many captioning solutions, Thumbslate™ also lets patients type replies that are spoken aloud, creating a two-way conversation. It is completely free, requires no account, and works entirely offline to protect sensitive conversations.

Does Thumbslate™ work completely offline without Wi-Fi or cellular service?

Yes. Thumbslate™ performs speech recognition, live subtitling, and spoken replies directly on your iPhone or iPad, without requiring Wi-Fi, cellular service, or cloud processing. Conversations are not transmitted to Anescribe servers or external speech recognition services. This makes Thumbslate™ particularly useful for private medical appointments, confidential discussions, and locations with unreliable internet access.

Does Thumbslate™ save my conversations or send them to the cloud?

Saving conversations is optional and must be enabled by the user. Thumbslate™ can provide live subtitles without saving a transcript. When saving is enabled, transcripts remain in the app's private storage and are explicitly excluded from iCloud and other cloud backups. Anescribe, LLC does not receive or store your conversations. Users can therefore choose between temporary live communication and keeping a local record for later reference.

Can healthcare professionals use Thumbslate™ for private, HIPAA-sensitive conversations?

Yes. Thumbslate™ is particularly useful for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals communicating with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing. Its medical vocabulary support helps clinicians explain diagnoses, medications, procedures, and consent information in natural language.

Because Thumbslate™ operates completely offline, conversations containing patient names or other protected health information can be subtitled without transmitting their contents to external servers. Optional saved transcripts remain on the device and are excluded from cloud backups. This privacy-focused design supports HIPAA-sensitive clinical environments, while healthcare organizations remain responsible for their own privacy and security requirements.

Can Thumbslate™ assign different colors to different speakers?

Not yet. Automatically identifying different speakers is called speaker diarization. Assigning each speaker a different subtitle color can make conversations much easier to follow, particularly for people with hearing impairments.

Anescribe, LLC recognizes the importance of this feature and is investigating ways to introduce it without slowing down live subtitles, compromising performance, or causing crashes. Our priority is reliable, immediate communication.

Is Thumbslate™ available for Android, and does it support languages other than English?

Thumbslate™ is currently available for iPhone and iPad through the Apple App Store. An Android version is not currently available.

Thumbslate™ is designed for English-language conversations, with particular attention to medical terminology. It is not a language translation app. All live subtitles and spoken replies work offline.

Who invented and owns Thumbslate™, and what other apps does Anescribe, LLC offer?

Thumbslate™ was invented by Anescribe, LLC, an American physician-owned health technology company that develops practical, privacy-focused applications for healthcare professionals and the public.

Anescribe also offers Innaslide™, another completely free accessibility app. Innaslide™ helps people with visual impairments or reading difficulties turn fine print into large, readable slides with spoken narration. Like Thumbslate™, it works completely offline, requires no account or personal information, and protects sensitive documents from cloud transmission.

Both Thumbslate™ and Innaslide™ are offered free forever as gifts to people with disabilities and those who care for them.

Other Anescribe products include Elescan®, a paid HIPAA-compliant document scanning and secure-sharing app for iOS, and Anescribe®, its flagship anesthesia documentation app for anesthesia professionals.

Learn more at https://anescribe.com.