Vigilant Ear Support 👂🛰️

Thank you for using Vigilant Ear. Our mission is to provide enhanced situational awareness through advanced acoustic event detection and real-time emergency alerts.

Contact Us

If you are experiencing technical issues, have questions about alert accuracy, or would like to provide feedback, please reach us via email at:

Email: vigilantear@wingdingssocial.com

Videos

Short videos with everything on screen — nothing you need to hear. Some now carry narration as well, but nothing is audio-only.

Change your caption language — switching the app's language and turning on Auto-Translate, including the step most people miss: captions keep arriving in the old language until you close the app completely and open it again.
What the alerts look like — smoke detector, knock at the door, baby crying, siren, severe weather and an earthquake confirmation, each with its direction.

More: Tutorials · Samples

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Vigilant Ear work in the background?

Vigilant Ear listens when monitoring is on and the necessary permissions are granted. It runs efficiently in the background and can send haptics, on-screen alerts, optional push notifications, and (when paired) Apple Watch direction cues when it detects important sounds.

Does Vigilant Ear drain my battery?

No. Vigilant Ear is engineered to use little battery so you can leave it on.

Here is how we keep battery use low:

Efficient on-device machine learning models that run on the Neural Engine where available.
Background listening hibernates when all alert categories are turned off.
Almost all processing stays on your phone; the network is used mainly for maps, weather warnings and radar (through Vigilant Ear's own relay), optional Music ID, and purchases.
Smart throttling reduces work when the acoustic scene is quiet.
Heavy math runs off the display thread and only when needed.

Why isn't the app detecting sirens?

Ensure you have granted Microphone permission in iOS Settings. Vigilant Ear needs the mic to process acoustic signatures. Confirm that Siren (or the relevant category) is enabled in Preferences, and that notifications were allowed if you expect push alerts. Haptics may be quieter if the device is in Silent Mode depending on system settings.

How accurate are the weather alerts?

Vigilant Ear uses official government CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) data, so alerts are as accurate as the warnings the issuing agencies publish. Official sources cover more than 140 countries and territories, and more are added often. Every warning reaches your phone through Vigilant Ear's own alert relay, which checks the official feeds every few minutes. The weather radar on the map uses national radars where they are available and NOAA's satellite rain estimate nearly everywhere else in the world. Location simulation, coverage gaps, or network delays may occasionally affect update frequency.

Does the app work in the background?

Yes. Vigilant Ear is designed to monitor for critical acoustic events while in the background when the necessary permissions are enabled and at least one alert category is on.

Can I feel alerts on a watch or band other than Apple Watch?

Yes. Vigilant Ear's alerts are ordinary iPhone notifications, so most watches and bands that show iPhone notifications will vibrate for them — with their own vibration, not Vigilant Ear's distinct patterns, which need Apple Watch. For every brand, go to Settings → Bluetooth on your iPhone, tap ⓘ next to the watch or band, and make sure Share System Notifications is on, and keep the iPhone within Bluetooth range (a nightstand is fine). Vigilant Ear's urgent alerts are Time Sensitive, so they get through the iPhone's own Sleep Focus unless you have turned Time Sensitive notifications off.

If you wear it to bed, check the watch or band's own sleep and Do Not Disturb settings: they silence everything, Vigilant Ear included.

Garmin — In the Garmin Connect app, open your device's settings and turn on Smart Notifications (under Notifications & Alerts). Garmin can turn on Do Not Disturb automatically while you sleep, which stops it vibrating for notifications; turn that off to feel alerts at night. The setting's name and place vary by model, so check your watch's manual.
Fitbit — In the Fitbit app, open your device's Notifications settings and turn on app notifications for Vigilant Ear. Fitbit's Sleep Mode and Do Not Disturb mute every notification, so leave both off at night.
Amazfit — In the Zepp app, open your device, then Notifications and Reminder → App Alerts → Manage Apps, and select Vigilant Ear. The watch's own Do Not Disturb mode blocks alerts, so turn it off at night.
Xiaomi Smart Band — In the Mi Fitness app, turn on app notifications and the switch for Vigilant Ear. The band stays silent in Do Not Disturb or Sleep Mode, so turn both off at night; with Notify only when worn on, it also stays silent while it is off your wrist.
Huawei — In the HUAWEI Health app, open your device, tap Notifications, and turn on the switch for Vigilant Ear. Do Not Disturb, set in the same app, stops the band vibrating during its hours, so turn it off (or leave your sleep hours out of its schedule) to feel alerts at night.
Pebble — In the Pebble Core app, make sure Vigilant Ear is on in the Notifications tab. Quiet Time silences notifications and vibration, so leave it off at night.

Samsung Galaxy Watch and Google Pixel Watch don't work with iPhone, and rings such as Oura can't vibrate for notifications.

What do the alert toggles control?

The alert category toggles in Preferences control whether Vigilant Ear treats those sounds as alert-worthy for notifications (and related delivery) when matching sounds are detected.

These toggles primarily affect background / notification delivery. They do not turn off the on-screen map and radar display when the app is open in the foreground.

Typical categories include:

Siren Alerts — Emergency vehicle sirens (police, fire, ambulance, etc.)
Alarms — Smoke detector and fire alarms
Knocks — Door knocks and doorbells
Baby — Baby cry (when enabled)
Weather Alerts — Severe weather warnings from official government CAP sources
People Alerts — People nearby (often best in quieter environments; may stay opt-in)

Notification permission is the system-level master switch. If you deny notifications on the startup verification screen (or later in iOS Settings), you will not receive push alerts even if individual categories are on. On-screen alerts while the app is open can still appear.

What's free, and what's Power Pack+?

The safety core is free, forever:

Local sound alerts (sirens, alarms, knocks/doorbells, baby, person nearby) with on-screen and optional push delivery
Speaker Mode live captions (on-device; directional where hardware allows)
Severe-weather feeds for your region — official sources in more than 140 countries and territories, with more added often
Feature Playground practice alerts (watermarked so they never look like a live emergency)
Apple Watch companion direction cues and Live Activity (Lock Screen / Dynamic Island / Watch Smart Stack), where available
Acoustic Scope — the live sound visualizer, free for everyone (the capture-for-training tools are Power Pack+)

Power Pack+ is a one-time unlock (not a subscription) with a 90-day free trial. It adds:

Auto-Translate — on-device translation of nearby speech into your language
Constellation — multi-iPhone shared hearing over Ultra-Wideband
Music ID — ShazamKit song recognition
Custom Sound Packs — add-on classifiers you train for your own sounds
Remote Link — private video and text calls with someone who isn't with you, with no audio at any point; starting one needs Power Pack+, and the person you invite joins free

Everything for recognition still runs on your device; Power Pack+ only changes which features are unlocked, never where raw audio is sent for analysis.

How do I manage Shazam and translation?

These live under Power Pack+ in the app (action fan sparkles / menu):

Shazam (Music ID) — environmental music identification on the spatial radar (Power Pack+)
Auto-Translate — translate live captions into your language (Power Pack+)

Severe-weather feeds are free and managed with the weather / alert preferences — they are not a Power Pack+ add-on.

How do I disable the microphone when the app is not in the foreground?

The app stops using the microphone for background monitoring when all alert category toggles are turned off in Preferences. It does not listen for or send background sound notifications when all categories are disabled. When at least one alert is enabled, the microphone may be used for background sound collection.

You can also revoke Microphone access entirely in iOS Settings (that stops all acoustic features, including foreground listening).

Why doesn't the app consistently detect all sounds?

Acute sounds like alarms and firetruck sirens are relatively easy for the sound ML engine to detect. Broadband sounds (like car engines or tires) are harder; we do an adequate but imperfect job given phone hardware limits. Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) algorithms are only so precise given the short distance between microphones. Direction needs a stereo-mic iPhone; iPads are captions-focused without full bearing.

Why did a caption briefly change right after it appeared?

That's the app double-checking itself. Right after a sentence is finalized, Vigilant Ear re-reads the last few seconds of audio with full context and — within about two seconds — can restore a missed word or fix a misheard one. After that, the text never changes. It happens on your device, like everything else.

How do Feature Playground and practice alerts work?

Open Feature Playground (wand) to try Home & Street practice sounds and other previews. Practice events are clearly marked PREVIEW so they never pretend to be a real emergency. Closing Feature Playground tears practice state down (including temporary GPS spoof used in some demos).

Vigilant Ear is an accessibility tool built with care. Please use it responsibly.

Made with ❤️ for the D/HH community and acoustic research.