Earshot
Live Transcription
iOSReal-time, on-device captions for the conversations around you — private by design, with speaker separation and no account required.
Brian Kemler
Product Manager · Builder
Independent Work
Apps
Apps I've designed, built, and shipped on my own — end to end.
Now
Meditation Timer
iOS · watchOSA minimal meditation timer for iPhone and Apple Watch — daily goals, streaks, and Apple Health, with no accounts, ads, or subscriptions.
Instascape
Photo Archive Viewer
WebA self-hosted, offline viewer that turns years of exported Instagram posts into a calm, browsable timeline — your archive, your server.
Built at Google
Audio AI
Zero-to-one audio AI products I built at Google — on-device, accessibility-first, and shipped to billions of Android devices.
Live Transcribe
Real-Time Captions
AndroidFree, real-time speech-to-text that captions the world around you for people who are deaf or hard of hearing — in 80+ languages, on device.
Live Caption
Captions for Any Media
Built into AndroidAutomatic, on-device captions for any audio or video on your phone — calls, podcasts, social clips — with no Wi-Fi or data connection needed.
Sound Amplifier
Hear More Clearly
AndroidFilters, augments, and amplifies the sounds around you — boosting quiet speech and reducing background noise through your headphones.
Work
Portfolio
Take a Look
Accessibility
Live Transcribe
Google Accessibility
Introducing Live Transcribe
The official introduction of Live Transcribe, a free Android app that uses Google's automatic speech recognition technology to bring real-time captions into everyday conversations.
Google Accessibility
Real-Time Continuous Transcription with Live Transcribe
A deep dive into the technology behind Live Transcribe — Google's app that provides real-time, continuous speech-to-text transcription for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Google Accessibility
Making Audio More Accessible with Two New Apps
How Sound Amplifier and Live Transcribe work together to make the world's audio more accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Accessibility
Live Caption
Google Android
Introducing Live Caption on Android, Now on Pixel 4
The launch of Live Caption — automatic, on-device captions for any media playing on your phone, with no Wi-Fi or data connection needed.
Google Pixel
First Call With My Son — Matthew's True Pixel Story
Matthew, who was born deaf, relied on video chat and lip-reading to communicate with his son Harry. When he got his Google Pixel, he tried out Live Caption and for the first time ever, he could do something that people all over the world do every day — he made a phone call to his son.
Speaking
Talks & Keynotes
Google I/O '19
Accessible Audio: Android Hearing Aid Support and the Audio Framework (Google I/O '19)
A Google I/O 2019 session on Android's hearing aid streaming support and the audio framework changes that enable direct connectivity between Android devices and hearing aids.
CES 2021
Google & Microsoft on Accessibility in Tech at CES 2021
A conversation at CES 2021 exploring how Google and Microsoft are advancing accessibility in technology, from assistive features to inclusive design principles.
Internationalization
Bringing the Internet to Myanmar
A talk at IMUG (International Multilingual User Group) on the challenges and breakthroughs of bringing internet access and language support to Myanmar.
PM & Leadership
How to Ace Meta-Style Leadership & Drive PM Interviews
Practical guidance on preparing for and excelling in Meta-style product management interviews, with focus on leadership and drive competencies.
Human Impact
Stories & Film
Google Accessibility
Google — A Coda Story
As a CODA, or 'child of deaf adults,' Tony has always straddled two worlds. And now that he hasn't been able to see his parents in over a year, staying close is more important, but also more difficult, than ever. But with the help of assistive technology...
Documentary
Dani's Twins Short Documentary
CREDIT: Associate Producer. Passion project promoting this beautiful documentary championing normalization of people living with disabilities. The award-winning film documenting the rare and risky twin pregnancy of a quadriplegic woman premiered at Mountainfilm Festival in May 2022.
View at Mountainfilm Media
AMI: Accessible Media Inc.
A feature on Accessible Media Inc. covering the impact of assistive technology and accessibility-first product design.
Google Android
Our All New TalkBack Screen Reader
Our latest version of TalkBack, Android's screen reader, includes features developed in collaboration with the blind and low-vision community.
Acknowledgement
Recognition
Google CEO
A Personal Note from Sundar Pichai
A personal note from Google's CEO congratulating Brian and the team on the Live Transcribe milestone — recognizing the product's rapid growth and impact, especially during the pandemic.
Research
Publications
Ear and Hearing · 2020
Auditory Measures for the Next Billion Users
M. Slaney, R.F. Lyon, R. Garcia, B. Kemler, C. Gnegy, D. Kanevsky, S. Savla, V. Cerf
Explores new evaluation methodologies for audio assistance technologies, proposing that user interface issues become more important than conventional measures like word-error rate when results appear in real time.
Read Publication Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) · 2015Attitudes Toward Vehicle-Based Sensing and Recording
M. Sleeper, S. Schnorf, B. Kemler, H. Haddadi, A. Rahmati
Investigates public attitudes toward vehicle-based sensor data and recording through two studies, revealing key tensions around privacy, safety, and data ownership.
Read Publication Technical Disclosure Commons — Defensive Publications Series · 2021On-Device and System-Wide Audio Live Captioning with Language Translation
B. Kemler, D. Cohen, N. Bar, Y. Tsafir, B. Schlesinger, A. Belozovsky, M. Tadmor Ramanovich, B. Xia, S. Tickner, B.C. Barbello, T. Upstill, H. Fitoussi, E. Laurent, J.D. Wilson
Describes techniques enabling smartphones to provide on-device, system-level live captioning with language translation — without requiring internet connectivity.
Read Publication Google Research · 2020Ecological Auditory Measures for the Next Billion Users
B. Kemler, C. Gnegy, D. Lyon, D. Kanevsky, J. Hershey, M. Slaney, R.A. Garcia, S. Savla, V. Cerf
Proposes ecological measurement approaches for audio assistance technologies designed to serve a global audience, with focus on speech enhancement, sound amplification, and audio classification.
Read Publication Open Source · GitHubgithub.com/briankemler
Swift · SwiftUI · TypeScript
The open-source home for my independent apps and experiments — including Earshot (on-device live captions for iPhone), Now (a meditation timer for iPhone and Apple Watch), and Instascape (a privacy-first Instagram archive viewer).
View on GitHubWriting
Publications & Articles
Accessibility
If It Has Audio, Now It Can Have Captions
Google Keyword Blog
Accessibility
Introducing Live Transcribe
Android.com
Accessibility
Real-Time Continuous Transcription with Live Transcribe
Google Research
Accessibility
Making Audio More Accessible with Two New Apps
Google Keyword Blog
Accessibility
New Features to Make Audio More Accessible on Your Phone
Google Keyword Blog
Accessibility
A New Keyboard for Typing Braille on Android
Google Keyword Blog
APIs & Infrastructure
DynamicsProcessing Effect API
Android Developers
Privacy & Infrastructure
How Meta Enforces Purpose Limitation via Privacy Aware Infrastructure at Scale
Meta Engineering
Privacy & Infrastructure
Introducing Android's Private Compute Services
Google Security Blog
Internationalization
Spreading the News in New Languages
Google News Blog
Internationalization
Gmail Now Available in Myanmar (Burmese)
Gmail Blog
Intellectual Property
Patents
Live Caption
Google LLC2022
Automatically Captioning Audible Parts of Content on a Computing Device
EP3963580A1
A computing device that generates captions directly from audio data being output from content sources — the foundational technology behind Live Caption on Android.
View Patent
Google LLC2023
Dynamics Processing Effect Architecture
US20230292076A1
Architecture for dynamics processing effects on computing devices, enabling real-time audio enhancement and sound amplification for accessibility.
View Patent
Waymo LLC2020
Unique Signaling for Vehicles to Preserve User Privacy
US10821887B1
Protects user privacy when dispatching driverless vehicles by generating unique, ephemeral signals so riders can identify their vehicle without exposing personal information.
View Patent
Waymo LLC2025
Augmented Reality Display to Preserve User Privacy
US12348907B1
Uses augmented reality overlays on a rider's device to visually identify an approaching driverless vehicle while preserving privacy — no physical markers needed.
View Patent
Google Inc.2016
Location-Based Privacy
US9436180B1
Anonymizes user identity from nearby autonomous vehicles gathering sensor data, ensuring that location-based services don't compromise personal privacy.
View Patent