Live Transcribe

The free Android starting point, because one app does two jobs. Live Transcribe turns speech into scrolling text and also labels non-speech sounds such as a doorbell or music, while Sound Notifications listens in the background for smoke and fire alarms, sirens, baby sounds, knocking, a doorbell or beeping appliances and alerts you by vibration or by flashing the camera light. You can add uncommon names and words so classroom or workplace vocabulary comes out right. It comes preinstalled on Pixel phones. Offline transcription works with downloaded languages, though older phones on Android 8 to 11 get English only offline, so check before you rely on it without a signal.