Lugs

Lugs is a privacy-first transcription and captioning platform that processes all audio locally on your device, eliminating the need for cloud connectivity or internet streaming. Built by deaf and hard-of-hearing developers, the tool was engineered from real-world accessibility needs rather than theoretical assumptions, resulting in superior context awareness and conversation understanding. The platform delivers live captions for any audio input through your computer's microphone or system audio, adapting intelligently to dialogue patterns and speaker variations. By performing all processing offline, Lugs ensures your conversations remain completely private while providing best-in-class accuracy that continuously improves through lifetime updates and real-world usage data. Setup is straightforward—simply connect a microphone and Lugs begins working immediately without configuration or account creation. This offline-first approach eliminates transcription delays inherent in cloud-based services while ensuring you never lose caption access due to connectivity issues. The tool supports multiple platforms including macOS, making it accessible across different computing environments.