hey hluska - Ava's founder here.
Phone calls - try RogerVoice app to have them transcribed for you. It's pretty easy but not free.
Ava - we focus on any in-person discussions, including meetings. The trick with group conversations is the cross-talk, and people speaking fast/casually. We developed over the last 3 years an AI that eliminates these issues to make it work exactly for this situation. Others will need to download the app (Ava), but it's free to join a host, and hosts get 5 hours every month to try the app 100% free.
Regarding the embarrassing situation of having to ask others, I see this a lot - that's really normal.
First, know that you can use Ava by itself with your phone, a bit like a "talking stick". It can look like you're checking your phone when you are actually checking what the person actually said if what you heard.
Just hold your phone within 1-2 meters from the speaker.
If you have a Bluetooth microphones, those make Ava really awesome: you can find an earpiece or a clip on (we recommend a few here: www.ava.me/store) so you can follow presentations/meetings when one person speak for a long time and is hard to lip read. Airpods or such work too, and of course wired microphones (for lunch for example).
For more situations, I really encourage you to read our FAQ: http://help.ava.me - we list like 95% of daily situations a deaf/hard-of-hearing person finds themselves into and how Ava can help there.
PS: feel free to give us any feedback on this, we're all ears & eyes :)
-thibault
