SayBack

Survive a phone call in a language you don't speak.

SayBack is an Android overlay that listens to your live call, translates what the other party says into plain English, and suggests the shortest possible reply for you to say back — in their language, written so you can pronounce it.

Get the app View on GitHub
Android 8.0+ Open source Bring your own API keys 30+ languages
How it works

Four steps, while the call is happening

You answer the phone normally. The overlay does the rest in the background — transcribe, translate, suggest a reply — usually within a second of each sentence.

Pick up the call

Service starts automatically. Turn on speakerphone for best mic quality.

Live transcription

Mic audio streams to Deepgram for real-time speech-to-text in the source language.

LLM translates & replies

Each turn goes through OpenRouter (your model of choice) with your saved context.

Read & speak

The overlay shows what they said, what it means, and the exact words to say back.

Features

Built for the situations that actually scare you.

A bank screening, a clinic appointment, an immigration office — the calls where missing a sentence costs you. The app keeps replies brutally short, so you don't trip on words you don't know.

A

Phonetic reply script

Reply rendered in Latin, native script, Cyrillic, or Perso-Arabic — whichever you can actually read out loud.

C

Personal context

Save your name, ID, address, account numbers, current situation. The model uses it to answer questions accurately for you.

M

Your models, your keys

Pick any OpenRouter model (gpt-4o-mini, claude-haiku, gemini-flash, …) and any Deepgram model. Keys stay on your device.

T

Test mode

Try the whole pipeline on your own voice without making a real call.

Bulgarian English German French Spanish Italian Russian Ukrainian Polish Romanian Turkish Greek Arabic Persian Dutch Portuguese + 14 more
Privacy

Your call, your keys, your device.

The app is a thin client around two paid APIs you provision yourself. Nothing routes through any server we control — because there is no server we control.

Full privacy policy

Install

Get the app

Released as a signed APK alongside each GitHub tag. You'll need a Deepgram account and an OpenRouter account — both have free credit to start.

Download APK

Latest release on GitHub — sideload directly. Releases

Get a Deepgram key

Free starter credit at deepgram.com. Paste it into the app's Settings.

Get an OpenRouter key

One key, many models, at openrouter.ai. Pick a cheap fast model first.