A quiet voice for faces you know.

For face blindness: a whisper of who, and how you know them.

Open the app

Whisper mode: a light ring around Maya’s face (an AI-generated sample face) and the caption “Maya, your manager at work. Just back from parental leave.”

What people with face blindness ask for

Roughly 2% of people have lifelong face blindness, while most of us know about 5,000 faces.

  • “What we need is some dude saying in our ears "yes , you know that person it's insert name"”

    u/Adventurous_Kiwi

  • “My boyfriend does it for me. I need that but like, in my earphones, for when he's not around.”

    u/Adventurous_Kiwi

  • “The contact cards would not help me, unfortunately. I'd only be practicing to recognize that specific picture of my friend.”

    u/HereForMcCormackAMA

Quotes from public posts on r/prosopagnosia, shown word for word. Numbers: Kennerknecht et al. 2006 (2.47% of 689 students; later estimates range from 0.64% to 5.42% depending on the cut-off, DeGutis et al. 2022) and Jenkins, Dowsett and Burton 2018.

  1. They say yes.

    Hand them the phone. They read the exact line it will whisper, and agree themselves.

    “Hi Sam.” The person being added reads the line and ticks “I’m Sam, and I agree”

  2. A note becomes a line.

    Type how you know them. The phone turns it into one line, offline.

    The whisper

    Raj, your neighbour. Knee surgery last month.

  3. Hear who it is.

    Once it’s sure, a light halo settles round their face and your earbud says the line. Short, warm or full.

    Raj, your neighbour.

  4. Not sure? It says so.

    “Could be Raj? Check: green parka.” Anyone else is “No match”, never stored, never named.

    Whisper mode: a dashed outline around an AI-generated face and the label “No match”

Before you walk in

Preparation and cues, the things people with face blindness already rely on.

  • Today’s list for a dinner: three people with their lines and what to look for

    Today’s list

    Pick who’ll be at dinner and hear their lines on the way. Event mode looks only for them.

  • Practice: cue notes for someone and three names to choose from

    Practice from cues

    Clothes, hair, voice: name people from what you notice. No streaks.

  • The people list with bigger text and the night theme

    Bigger text, night colours

    Every screen a size larger, in day or night.

Faces never leave your phone.

“...But would I want Meta knowing that much about me...”

Recognised on the phone
In the browser. No server, account or key.
Only people who said yes
They read their line and agree on your phone.
Every face measured, then dropped
Checked against your list for a moment, never kept.
Encrypted at rest
With a key the browser won’t export.
Works offline
After the first visit.
Delete everything
One button, every person and the key.

Honest limits

  1. A hint, not proof. It can name the wrong person, especially relatives, look-alikes and children. Never use it to decide who to trust or let in.
  2. Silence doesn’t mean a stranger. Dim light, side angles, masks, new glasses or a haircut can stop a match.
  3. It works better for some faces than others. Open face models make more mistakes for darker-skinned and East Asian faces, women, children and older people.
  4. It only knows people who said yes. It can’t look anyone up. Each face in view is measured for a moment, checked against your list, then forgotten.
  5. The app records that you asked them, but it can’t check. Remove anyone the moment they ask.
  6. A prototype, tested so far mainly on AI-generated faces, not yet with people who have face blindness. Without earbuds, your phone speaks out loud.

Fair questions

Doesn’t this exist already?
Taught faces do: OrCam MyEye and Envision’s Teach a Face name faces for blind users, and NameVault drills names from photos. Halo is for people who see but can’t place faces: how you know them, your cues, a briefing before an event, their own yes, free in a browser.
Won’t I look odd holding up a phone?
One person put it plainly: “I feel like that's more in the realm of smart glasses than phones because I'm not going to go around pointing my phone at everyone.” (u/Ilaxilil) Pocket mode helps: the phone hangs at chest height, camera out, screen dark, and you hear the whisper or feel a buzz code. Today’s list and cues need no camera at all.
What if faces aren’t how I recognise people?
Many don’t: “I recognise people by cues - largely their voices” (u/SybariticDelight). Cue notes and practice are built for that.
What does it need?
A phone with a camera and a recent Chrome, Safari or Firefox. Earbuds for the voice; otherwise a buzz and the name on screen.

See it in 60 seconds.

Three AI-generated faces, recognised live in your browser. No camera, no sign-up.

Start the minute
The people list with three AI-generated sample people