hear.is · an acoustic accessibility map

Hear it before you go. hear.is maps what public places sound like, so you can find somewhere you can actually hear each other.

What hear.is is

You know the feeling: you walk in, and within a minute you know you’ll be shouting all night. hear.is is like Shazam for the sound of a space: real places, listened to by real people, described in plain language so you find that out before you go instead of after you’ve sat down.

The map covers cafés, cultural and leisure venues, community centres, town halls and other eligible public spaces. Each entry says how the space sounded and when it was last heard, in words rather than numbers, alongside the readings behind them.

How it works

Someone who is actually at the place answers one clear question about conversation.
On supported devices, the phone also listens for fifteen seconds, analyses the sound on the device. The audio is discarded immediately. On the current iPhone and iPad web path, no microphone permission is requested and the person’s answers provide the evidence.
Only the useful non-audio sound picture joins the public map, dated, so the next person can read it before they walk in.

No audio recording is saved or uploaded. Temporary microphone samples are processed locally. No venue can buy a favourable sound description: not by asking, not by paying. Every sound on the map comes from someone who stood in the space.

The Acoustic Comfort Index (ACI) is in development; no scores are currently published. Historical phone estimates remain uncalibrated. Council reporting is proposed supporting evidence for DIAP planning, not government certification. Continuous AudioWorklet processing is experimental and only runs where enabled and supported.

More about hear.is

The live map and contribution flow need JavaScript. Turn it on, or read the pages above.

HEAR.IS Pty Ltd
Civic Quarter, Level 1, 68 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, ACT, 2600
ABN 37 702 004 608
ACN: 702004608