Originally published by Wired
People with hearingloss have relied onhearing aidsto communicate more effectively and comfortably. But there’s now a new tech, live-captioning eyeglasses, that could be an additional accessibility tool to treat hearing loss. Instead of amplifying speech, however, these gadgets turn it into subtitles. Even if your hearing is fine, you may still find this type of device to behelpful in everyday life.
Captioning glasses are a distinct subset ofsmart glasses, and they work exactly as the name suggests, displaying real-time subtitles in front of your eyes—transcribing everything you hear (orcan’thear) into text, whether it’s face-to-face chitchat or movie dialog at the cinema. There is a tiny display embedded in each lens, though these are single-color screens designed specifically to display captioned text, invariably in a vibrant shade of green. Don’t expect typical smart-glass features like camera recording or music playback, though there are helpful functions like live translation, navigation, and other information. Fundamentally, captioning glasses are designed to do one thing: turn dialogue into readable text.
To find out how effective captioning glasses are and if they’re worth investing in, I tested several models for this story. While they all worked as advertised, I found only the Even Realities G2 to be the best in this category. For other types of smart glasses and wearables, check out theBest Meta Glassesand theBest Virtual Reality Headsets.
What Can Captioning Glasses Do?
Two features are ubiquitous across the category:
Transcription/captions:The bread and butter of all captioning glasses, they don’t just display captions in real time but also archive them on your mobile phone for future reference. You can use captioning glasses to record meetings or other conversations, but remember you’ll need to be close to the action to get a good recording.
Translation:Language translation services are common, adding a key feature that even users without hearing issues may benefit from. With a pair of captioning glasses, you can turn a foreign speaker’s language into your own via real-time subtitles. The only catch is that they probably won’t be able to understand you. Most captioning-eyeglass apps include a basic two-way translation system to allow for rudimentary back-and-forth.
Many (though not all) captioning glasses also have AI features. Some can work as AI-powered voice assistants, letting you ask questions and getLLM-driven answers. Many will also turn transcripts into summaries, emulating the features ofAI notetakers.
Do Captioning Glasses Require a Subscription?
The good news is that all captioning glasses should work out of the box without a subscription, and the free tier of service is generally capable of covering the basics of both transcription and translation.
However, they almost all offer upsell plans—sold by the minute, month, or year—that provide higher-quality captioning and more translation languages (sometimes vastly more), and unlock some of the AI services mentioned above. Check the fine print to see what you have to pay extra for.
Do Captioning Glasses Work Offline?
This varies by vendor, but those that do offer offline support often don’t work as well when disconnected. Even vendors that tout this capability tend to strongly recommend using the glasses while connected (via a phone or Wi-Fi) to improve the quality of transcriptions and (especially) translations.
Are Captioning Glasses Medical Devices?
Captioning glasses fall into two medical categories: hearing support and vision support. As such, most vendors allow you to pay for these devices with vision insurance and FSA/HSA plans.
Remember, captioning glasses can also function as actual glasses, and in fact, if you have poor eyesight, you’ll need to fit them with prescription lenses if you want to be able to read the captions. (You can also wear contact lenses to bypass this need.) Most captioning glasses use a magnetic or clip-on system that adds a second lens behind the primary lens with the integrated display, which can get bulky.
The effectiveness of these products as eyeglasses will vary based on your particular vision needs, and I don’t know if I’d recommend investing in expensive progressive lenses for captioning glasses. The captioning overlay interferes with up-close computer work or reading, so I regularly switched back to standard eyeglasses if I didn’tneedcaptioning.
Captioning glasses, like all smart glasses, aren’t perfect. They can be extremely heavy—up to three times the weight of my regular glasses—and I found they usually sat on my face in an odd position, much too high on the bridge of my nose, with no way to adjust them. While captioning glasses generally have a battery life measured in hours, not days, that’s actually not as big a problem: I found most glasses were too heavy and uncomfortable to wear for more than about an hour at a time.
For the style-conscious, my wife was not shy in letting me know that these glasses looked “ridiculous.” Her words. I included a pic to run with this roundup. You decide.
The Only Captioning Glasses I Would Buy
Photograph: Chris Haslam
Photograph: Chris Haslam
Photograph: Chris Haslam
Photograph: Chris Haslam
Even Realities G2 are the best captioning glasses I tested, and no other option comes close. Available in two frame styles and three colors, it’s the only pair of captioning glasses that even hints at stylishness. Its lighter weight and thinner profile are due in part to not using clip-on lenses for prescription users; you set your vision details when you order, and they arrive ready to wear with the lens modified (prescription starts at $159, and progressive lenses are available). To be fair, the 43-gram frames are still far from subtle. (I used a precision scale to weigh the glasses, but yours might be different depending on the type of lens you get.)
While the core features work fantastically well, the glasses go far beyond transcription and translation (with 35 languages supported). They also summarize notes, can provide head-up-display-style directions (with a mini map), and feature a dashboard that can display news, stock prices, and calendar items from your phone. If that’s not enough, the Even Hub lets you install additional apps to do more things, like display the weather, play chess, or stream song lyrics. Battery life is excellent—about 10 hours of use and seven full recharges in the case, although WIRED reviewer Chris Haslam got even more inhis full review. Depending on how you use these glasses, your mileage will vary.
The G2 frames put controls on a pad behind the ear instead of on the temple. That takes some getting used to, but if you don’t like it, you can add the optionalEven Realities R1 smart ring ($249), which lets you control the G2 interface with a thumb, making for more discreet interaction than constantly tapping the side of your head. The ring also sends health measurements to the Even app, including heart rate, daily steps, and sleep quality.
Unlike the other glasses I tested, Even doesn’t sell a subscription plan; everything’s included out of the box.
The only downside I could find with the G2 is that it is largely devoid of offline features, so the glasses have to be connected to the internet to do much of anything. Considering the G2’s capabilities, it’s a trade-off I am more than happy to make.
Other Captioning Glasses I Tested
There are plenty of capable captioning eyeglasses on the market, but they are surprisingly similar in both looks and features. While many are quite capable, none had the combination of power and affordability that I got with Even’s G2. Here’s a rundown of everything else I tested.
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
Leion’s Hey 2 is the price leader in this market, and even its prescription lenses ($90 to $299) are pretty affordable. The hardware, however, is heavy: 50 grams without lenses, 60 grams with them. A full charge gets you six to eight hours of operation; the case adds juice for up to 12 recharges.
I like the Leion interface, which lays out caption, translation, “free talk” (two-way translation), and a teleprompter feature on its clean app. You get access to nine languages; using Pro minutes expands that to 143. Leion sells its premium plan by the minute, not the month, so you need to remember to toggle this mode off when you don’t need it. Pricing is $10 for 120 minutes, $50 for 1,200 minutes, and $200 for 6,000 minutes. There’s no offline use supported, and I often struggled to get AI summaries to show up in English instead of Chinese (regardless of the recorded language).
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
You’re not seeing double: XRAI and Leion use the same manufacturer for their hardware, and the glasses weigh the same. The battery spec is also similar, with up to eight hours on the frames and another 96 hours when recharging with the case. XRAI claims its display is significantly brighter than competitors’, but I didn’t see much of a difference in day-to-day use.
The features and user experience are roughly the same, though Leion’s teleprompter feature isn’t implemented in XRAI’s app, and it doesn’t offer AI summaries of conversations. I also didn’t find XRAI’s app as user-friendly as Leion’s version, particularly when trying to switch among the admittedly exhaustive 300 language options. Only 20 of these are included without ponying up for a Pro subscription, which is sold both by the month and minute: $20/month gets you a max of 600 upgraded transcription minutes and 300 translation minutes; $40/month gets you 1,800 and 1,200 minutes, respectively. On the plus side, XRAI does have a rudimentary offline mode that works better than most. For prescription lenses, add $140 to $170.
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
AirCaps Smart Glasses
AirCaps does not make its own prescription lenses. Instead, you must purchase a pair of $39 “lens holders” and take them to an optician if you want prescription inserts. I was unable to test these with prescription lenses and ultimately had to try them out over my regular glasses, which worked well enough for short-term testing. Frames weigh a hefty 53 grams without add-on lenses; the company couldn’t tell me how much extra weight prescription lenses would add to that, but it’s safe to say these are the bulkiest and heaviest captioning glasses on the market. Despite the weight, they only carry two to four hours of battery life, with 10 or so recharges packed into the comically large case. Another option is to clip one of AirCaps’ rechargeable 13-gram Power Capsules ($79 for two) to one of the arms, which can provide 12 to 18 extra hours of juice.
The AirCaps feature list and interface make it perhaps the simplest of all these devices, with just a single button to start and stop recording. Transcriptions and translations are available for free in nine languages. For $20/month, you can add the Pro package, which offers better accuracy, access to more than 60 languages, and the option to generate AI summaries on demand (though only if recordings are long enough). As a bonus: Five hours of Pro features are free each month. Offline mode works pretty well, too. The only bad news is that these bulky frames just aren’t comfortable enough for long-term wear.
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
The most expensive option on the market (up to $1,399 with prescription lenses!) weighs a relatively svelte 40 grams (52 grams with lenses) and offers about four hours of battery life. There’s no charging case; the glasses must be charged directly using the included USB-connected dongle.
The glasses are extremely simple, offering transcription and translation features—with support for about 80 languages, which is impressive. I unfortunately found the prescription lenses Captify sent to be the blurriest of the bunch, making the captions comparatively hard to read. And while the device supports offline transcription, performance suffered badly when disconnected from the internet. I couldn’t get translations to work at all when offline. For $15/month, you get better accuracy and speaker differentiation, and access to AI summaries of conversations. Prescription lenses cost between $99 and $600.
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