Subtle releases ear buds with its noise cancelation models

Voice AI startup Subtle, which creates voice isolation models to help computers understand you better in loud environments, today launched a new pair of wireless earbuds that help users sound clear on calls and provide accurate transcriptions for voice notes.

The company unveiled these earbuds ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and said that it plans to ship them in the U.S. in the next few months. The buds cost $199 and will come with a year-long subscription to the iOS and Mac app. The app will let users take voice notes or chat with AI without pressing any keys. The company said it is using a custom chip that allows it to wake the iPhone while it is locked.

The startup is also trying to compete with AI-powered voice dictation apps such as Wispr Flow, Willow, Monolouge, and Superwhisper by allowing users to dictate in any app using the voice buds. The company claimed that the buds would deliver five times fewer errors than AirPods Pro 3 combined with OpenAI’s transcription model.

In a demo seen by TechCrunch, the voice buds were able to capture audio in a noisy background. The buds also managed to capture the text for a voice note when Subtle’s co-founder and CEO, Tyler Chen, was whispering.

“We are seeing that there is a huge move towards voice as a new interface that a lot of folks are adopting. You can do much more with voice in a natural way than with a keyboard. However, we saw that voice is rarely an interface people use when others are around. So that using our noise isolation model, we will give consumers a way to experience a voice interface in the form of our earbuds,” Chen told TechCrunch over a call.

Last year, companies like Sandbar and Pebble announced forthcoming rings for note-taking. Chen said that with its buds combined with the app, it wants to provide the functionalities of different tools like dictation, AI chat, and voice notes in one package.

Users can pre-order these buds using the startup’s site. The earbuds are available in black and white colorways.

Subtle has raised $6 million in funding to date, and has been working with consumer companies like Qualcomm and Nothing to deploy its models for noise isolation.