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The Best Apps for Deaf People in 2023
April 2, 2025
While we covered the in another post. Here, we share 12 of the best apps for Deaf people. This includes a video chat app for the Deaf, communication and alarm clock apps, and apps to help hearing people communicate in — and learn — sign language.
Included here:
ntouch | Sorenson for Zoom | Cardzilla | Make It Big | Deaf Wake | Sisters in Style | Wavello | The ASL App
1. ntouch® by Sorenson
Cost: $0
If you’re Deaf or hard-of-hearing and use sign language to communicate, you can register for VRS from Sorenson (or another provider) and use ntouch (or another VRS app) on your mobile phone. Federal funding covers the cost for the service, which is available only to qualified individuals.
Using ASL on a typical phone doesn’t work. That’s why video relay service (VRS) came about. Problem is the world is mobile today. And traditional videophones aren’t.
ntouch solves that by turning your smartphone or laptop into a videophone, so you can make video relay calls anytime, anywhere.
All you need to make calls at home, at work, at school, and when you’re out and about is a Sorenson VRS account and smartphone, videophone, or computer. You can even make 911 calls in ASL. Calls are all encrypted, so you have total privacy.
Rating from Google Play
Rating from Apple App Store
2. Sorenson for Zoom
Cost: $0
If you’re Deaf or hard-of-hearing and use sign language to communicate, you can register for a VRS account with Sorenson, which is covered by Federal funds.
Sorenson for Zoom makes it’s easier than ever for a Deaf individual to attend a Zoom meeting and communicate in a group conversation with people who don’t know ASL. Note that Sorenson for Zoom cannot be used for webinars.
Sorenson for Zoom is not a traditional smartphone app. And there are two versions of the app. One is available through the Zoom Marketplace and works on a desktop running MacOS or Windows. It requires that the host have a Sorenson VRS account and a paid Zoom account.
The other is a web app usable on any device that can access the internet and has a browser, such as a smartphone.
Either app lets you dial in to Sorenson VRS directly through Zoom when the meeting is hosted on a paid account and add VRS interpretation services to the meeting.
Learn more about Sorenson for Zoom and/or the web app.
3. Hand Talk Translator
Cost: Includes ads and in-app purchases
When you’re out and about and in a pinch, Hand Talk Translator from Hand Talk Servicos Ltda might help with basic communication. Built originally for Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), a beta version automatically translates text and audio into American Sign Language.
Note that some users express disappointment with the current ASL output and that the app fingerspells too many things. So, user beware. With luck, the beta version for ASL will help the developer work the bugs out.
If you know someone you’d like to ask to learn sign language, Hand Talk is also one of several apps that can help. And you can use it as a rudimentary communication solution or alternative to a captioning app when you need to talk with someone who doesn’t sign.
The app’s page on Google Play claims it was, “elected the World’s Best Social App by the UN.” We weren’t able to verify this claim.
The developer recommends the app as a complimentary communication solution for classrooms, homes with both Deaf and hearing individuals, and as an ASL teaching aid.
Rating from Google Play
Rating from Apple App Store
4. Cardzilla
Cost: $0
Cardzilla by Tim Ketttering for iOS or Randall Noriego for Android lets you easily convert messages into large text. You don’t have to scroll when using this app. Your message automatically resizes to fit the screen as you type. It also saves your messages for you. It’s easy to navigate with a simple swipe. All you have to do to save and clear a message is shake your phone.
The app supports Dark Mode and lets you customize your colors and even use it with an attached keyboard. And the app is Deaf-owned and designed!
A Sorenson staffer shared, “I use Cardzilla more frequently for conversations than Make it Big. It’s more convenient in that I can shake off text and keep typing. It makes for a more dynamic conversation.”
Rating from Google Play
Rating from Apple App Store
5. Make It Big for iPhone
Cost: $0
Make It Big from An Trinh turns typed copy into big copy — big enough to fill the entire screen. If you, as a Deaf user, need to talk with someone who doesn’t know ASL, you can type and show them what you’re saying without handing over your phone. And they can type their response, so you can have a two-way conversation.
It works in portrait and landscape mode. And if you shake your phone, the background color and text change to create a flashing effect — perfect for when you need to get someone’s attention.
The app includes customization options, including font size, text and background colors, turning the flash mode off, and adjusting the speed of the flash mode.
Rating from Apple App Store
6. Make It Big – Large Text for Android
Cost: Includes ads and in-app purchases
Make it big — Large text for the Android is a different app than Make It Big for iPhone. Make it big – Large Text is from Cazimir Roman.
It turns written text into big onscreen words, so you can communicate with people who are Deaf, hard-of-hearing or in a noisy space where they can’t hear you.
It automatically resizes what you type to fill the screen, which means it’s limited to shorter sentences.
Make it big – Large Text does let you customize the background and font. It supports offline use, dark mode, emojis, and multiple languages. It lets you save text and search saved texts.
Rating from Google Play
7. Deaf Wake
Cost: $1.99
Deaf Wake from Steven Misfud “was created by a deaf person and is designed to ensure everyone can get up when they’re supposed to. Removing the risk of sleeping in and being late for meetings, it allows deaf individuals or heavy sleepers to be on time, every time.”
The app is not a pre-funeral event (wake) for Deaf people. Instead, it turns your phone into an LED, vibration, and/or visual alarm clock. When it’s time to rise and shine, you can choose to have the phone screen flash, the phone vibrate, the camera flash go off, and/or have a loud alarm sound. Customizable alerts let you choose which you want and use different alerts for different scenarios — such as one for waking and one or more for notifications during a work meeting.
You can even use the app as a timer, say for cooking a meal. And you can customize different alarms with your own descriptions.
Rating from the App Store
8. Sisters in Style
Cost: $0
Sisters in Style is run by two Deaf sisters. The duo sells women’s clothing, home decor, and beauty products through live ASL sessions on the app and through their website. Products sold are of high quality, sustainable, and sourced worldwide.
The app lets you browse items for sale, make a purchase, and/or get on a waitlist.
Rating from Google Play
Rating from the App Store
9. Sorenson Wavello
Cost: $0
The Sorenson Wavello app is for your friends and family. With Wavello installed on their cell phones — and built into Sorenson ntouch apps and Lumina VP — you can call them for a video chat using a VRS interpreter.
Note that hearing friends and family can’t place Wavello calls. The Deaf VRS accountholder has to initiate the call.
Rating from Google Play
Rating from Apple App Store
10. ASL Dictionary – Sign Language
Cost: $7.99
ASL Dictionary — Sign Language from Software Studios isn’t for a Deaf individual; it’s for people in the their life. It packs 5,000 words and videos into one app to show how to sign them. It even shows multiple options for signing words when applicable along with alternate meanings. It also includes quizzes and exercises.
Users can play the videos in slow motion or on loop to learn at a pace that works for them.
The app has no sound and focuses on the ASL instead. The developer also responds to feedback, which shows a commitment to improving the product for users.
Rating from Google Play
Rating from Apple App Store
11. The ASL App
Cost: $0 for select bundles with ads and in-app purchases, select paid bundles, or $9.99 for all bundles without ads
The ASL App from Ink & Salt LLC is designed by Deaf individuals and features native ASL signers. While its reviews give it a somewhat lower overall rating than ASL Dictionary – Sign Language, it is packed with features.
In keeping with ASL as a visual language, the app offers your hearing friends and colleagues a visual way to learn ASL at their own pace. Users even have the option to change the speed of individual lessons and a slow-motion option.
Users can save signs and even share them, with a social sharing option. And they have access to a variety of themed bundles that teach signs in categories, like dining, foods, timing, nature, geography, and culture.
Rating from Google Play
Rating from Apple App Store
Malala Alonso