Speak without being heard.
VOX is a wearable microphone, always with you. Type with your voice, wherever you are.
Dictation should not require broadcasting your words.
Libraries, open offices, a noisy café. Speaking out loud is often too disruptive or too easily drowned out, so we type instead.
VOX uses a stethoscope-like microphone to hear your voice through your body, not the room around you. It’s built for quiet voice input with less background noise, so you can write a message, prompt your AI, or capture a thought without everyone hearing it.
A man stands in dense jungle wearing VOX on its cord. He says a sentence quietly, and it appears on screen as typed text: VOX is an invisible keyboard.
An object you’d want to wear: close to the body, out of sight under your shirt.
Always with you.
Put it on and forget it’s there. At just 11 grams, VOX sits discreetly beneath a shirt, with a skin-contact microphone and physical programmable buttons built in.
- Status
- VOX Beta · Working prototype
- Companion app
- macOS · iOS
- Battery
- 2 h active capture · 14 h standby
- Charging
- USB-C
- Sensor
- 1 skin-contact microphone
- Controls
- 1 capture button · 3 side controls
- Material
- 3D-printed case · Skin-safe rubber
- Size · weight
- 35 × 37 × 12 mm · 11 g** 9 g without cord
Other voice wearables listen to the room. VOX listens to you.
Privacy for you, and everyone around.
VOX is designed to support your privacy and the privacy of those around you. It captures less ambient sound and only activates when you press the button.
- 01
Made for dictation.
Use VOX for notes, messages, and prompts. (The beta is not designed for calls, meetings, or continuous conversation.)
- 02
Captures less of the room.
The microphone listens inward, not out into the room. It captures less of the noise and background conversations around you.
- 03
Starts only when you press.
No wake word. No continuous listening. Press VOX or use MouthPad to start and stop dictation.
Introducing VOX.
A short introduction to VOX. To go further, watch VOX and MouthPad play chess together, hands free, or see one of many use cases: agentic AI workflows, driven by voice.
Speak into any text box.
Examples of messages dictated with VOX: "Move the standup to four. I want to ship the audio fix first." Sent to Messages. "Tell Sam yes to Friday, and that I'll book the table." Sent to Messages. "Note to self: the hinge still rattles past forty degrees." Sent to Notes. "Search for flights to Boston on Thursday morning." Sent to Search.
Launch dictation with VOX’s configurable buttons or with MouthPad. It starts when you press and stops when you press again.
VOX is the keyboard. MouthPad is the mouse.
VOX is for dictation. MouthPad is for cursor control. Each works on its own. Together, they cover text and pointer input.
Built by the lab behind MouthPad.
VOX is made by Augmental, a human–machine interface lab in San Francisco building Skinware: the layer between the body and the machine.
Our first product, MouthPad, turns the tongue into a cursor: a hands-free way to control any device. VOX is its voice, enabling private text input that goes wherever you do. The two were made to work together.
We design our products with the people conventional interfaces leave out: people who cannot rely on their hands, including those living with quadriplegia, ALS, or a spinal cord injury. We believe that by designing for those who are the most constrained, we can make better interfaces for everyone.
Buy the VOX beta.
$200
Fully refundable
A small beta, made by Augmental in San Francisco. Everything you pay goes toward MouthPad units for people who need one and can’t afford it.
- Edition
- Beta
- Ships
- Estimated Q4 2026
- Ships to
- United States
- Payment
- Refundable any time before your unit ships
Any questions?
Product overview
What is VOX?
A wearable microphone for talking to your devices. Your voice travels through your body and VOX picks it up at your skin, rather than sound from the air, so you can speak quietly, or even whisper, without being overheard.
Is VOX silent?
No. You still speak, and someone close by may hear you. VOX is designed for low-volume speech; a whisper works in some conditions, but it is not silent-speech technology.
Can I use VOX for calls?
No. The beta is for dictating notes, messages, and prompts. It is not designed for phone calls, video meetings, or continuous conversation.
Who is VOX for?
VOX is for people who want to dictate on the go or use voice interfaces quietly without a visible wearable in the way. It grew from Augmental’s accessibility work for people who cannot rely on their hands.
How is it different from MouthPad?
MouthPad is a trackpad for the tongue: a hands-free cursor. VOX is a wearable microphone for text and speech input. They’re built for different jobs, and they work better together.
Can I use VOX without pressing its buttons?
Yes. You can drive VOX directly with its physical buttons, or pair it with MouthPad to control every function completely hands-free. Accessibility is at the core of what we do at Augmental.
Privacy
How does it hear me without hearing the room?
Your voice travels through your body and vibrates your skin, which acts like a speaker diaphragm, displacing air. VOX is designed to pick up that air, rather than pointing a microphone at your face the way an earbud does. Its sensor is tuned to your body, so it can capture lower volume speech while background noise comes through far quieter than on an ordinary microphone.
Does it record the people around me?
Not continuously. VOX has no wake word; capture starts when you press the button and stops when you press it again. While active, it may still pick up some nearby sound. The design reduces it, and improving that physical isolation is an active area of work.
What does “private” mean here?
By privacy, we mean controlling what can be heard and captured in the room: lower-volume speech, less ambient sound capture, and deliberate activation. It’s also worn under your shirt, so it’s nearly invisible. VOX does not control what a connected app or service does with your audio or text; that service’s privacy terms still apply.
The beta
Is this a finished product?
No. VOX is a working prototype in a small beta. Functionality is limited. Performance varies with fit, voice, movement, and surroundings. The hardware and software will change as we learn.
How well does it work?
It’s a first version. VOX already works well enough to unlock things an ordinary microphone can’t, like speaking at a low volume in a shared office or whispering in a quiet room. It doesn’t work perfectly in every situation yet, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Every revision makes it better.
Will it work with my devices?
For now, VOX works on macOS and iOS through our companion app. On macOS, it appears as a microphone in any app. On iOS, an Action Button shortcut can type into any text field on iPhone 15 Pro and newer. On older iPhones, AssistiveTouch or Back Tap does the same. On both macOS and iOS, you can use VOX’s buttons to activate it.
Why are you selling a beta?
Two reasons. Getting hardware right takes time. We think VOX is already good, and we’d rather put it in your hands now than sit on it for another year while we polish it for a wider release. And we need your feedback: we’re still learning which features matter most, and the fastest way to find out is to put devices in real hands.
Does it require a subscription?
Not for the beta. We may add one later for cloud models and premium features, but two things won’t change: VOX will always work as a plain microphone with other macOS apps, and if a subscription arrives, dictation will still have a free local-model option.
Ordering
Where do you ship?
The beta ships within the United States. If you’re elsewhere, join the mailing list. International is where we want to go next, and we’ll write when we can reach you.
What does US-only mean? Can I purchase it if I live elsewhere?
We follow US regulations and can only sell within the United States, so we ship to US addresses and accept returns from US addresses only. We don’t geo-fence any of VOX’s features, though — once a unit is yours, it works freely outside the US.
When does it ship, and is my payment refundable?
Estimated shipping is Q4 2026, as a small beta batch. Your order is fully refundable any time before your unit ships, for any reason. And once it arrives, you still have 30 days: if VOX isn’t for you, return it within 30 days of delivery for a full refund — in good working condition and its original packaging, with return shipping on us.
Where can I read the VOX terms and warranty?
Both are short PDFs: the VOX Terms of Use and the VOX Warranty.