Features
Baby cry analyzer — listens to the cry, ranks the reasons from context
The baby cry analyzer in Agubu starts with one question: is this sound actually a cry? The microphone listens for 8 seconds, an on-device model detects the cry and checks recording quality. Ranking the reasons is then left to context rather than sound — the last feed, time awake, the last diaper change, your baby's age and the hour of the day.
We chose that order deliberately. We measured on our own data that the reason cannot be read from the sound; all the numbers are on the Methodology page. Agubu gives you a ranked list with probabilities, not a single answer, and says plainly when it isn't sure.
An 8-second listen, entirely on your device
When you tap Listen to the cry, the microphone opens for 8 seconds only. Audio is held in volatile memory, never written to disk, and erased the moment the analysis finishes. No internet is needed; it works in airplane mode.
The on-device model (YAMNet, TFLite) checks two things: is this a cry, and is the recording good enough? A silent room, heavy noise or a too-short recording gets rejected. Instead of inventing a reason for silence, the app asks you to try again. That quality gate is our answer to the complaint, common in this category, that apps give results even in a quiet room.
Context ranks the reasons
Once the cry is confirmed, the app looks at your baby's day. Everything you log matters here; the “What did this result look at?” panel on the result screen lists exactly which facts were used.
- Time since the last feed
- Time awake and the typical wake window for your baby's age
- Time since the last diaper change
- Your baby's age and the hour of the day
- Once enough examples exist: a personal weighting learned from your “right / wrong” feedback
Three confidence tiers
The result does not always arrive in the same tone. Depending on how close the possibilities are, the app uses one of three tiers:
- Most likely X — one reason clearly stands out from the rest
- Probably X — but I'm not sure — something stands out, but the gap is small
- I'm not sure — the possibilities are close; the top three are listed and the app does not hand you false confidence
How to use it in the app
- On the Today tab, tap Listen to the cry and hold the phone about 30 cm from your baby.
- Wait 8 seconds. The result screen shows the most likely reason, the other possibilities and the “What did this result look at?” panel.
- Follow the suggested step under the result: start a nursing entry, add a diaper entry or play a soothing sound.
- A little later the app asks “I said X — was that right?”; choose Right, Partly, Wrong or Not sure. Personalisation learns from this.
Why we don't quote a percentage
High-percentage claims are common in this category; we measured where they come from. In the cause-labelled dataset, the great majority of babies contributed a single label, so recognising the baby amounts to knowing the label. Split the recordings randomly instead of by baby and the score rises on its own. We split by baby, and predicting the cause from sound stayed at chance level.
So we do not give you a percentage. We can say that cry detection works; the value of the ranking depends on how regularly you log. The article Why a cry cannot be decoded has the detail.
What it is not
- Not a baby monitor: it does not listen in the background and does not detect cries on its own while the app is closed.
- Not a medical device: it does not replace a clinician's assessment.
- It does not claim to read the reason from the sound, and it does not invent information the sound does not carry.
Frequently asked questions
Can a baby cry analyzer tell the reason from the sound?
Not reliably, and we measured that on our own data: with baby-wise cross-validation, predicting the cause from sound stayed at chance level. The same sound does carry the baby's identity and age — just not the reason. That is why Agubu ranks reasons from context, not from sound.
Why 3 analyses a day?
The free tier is permanent and we committed to it in the terms. Three analyses a day covers most evenings; unlimited analyses are in Premium. The full result is shown on the free tier too — no part of it is locked.
Does the analysis work if I don't log anything?
It works, but it says “I'm not sure” more often, because the ranking of reasons comes from context. Logging the last feed and sleep improves the result noticeably; the result screen reminds you of that.
Is there an app that tells you what a baby's cry means?
No app can read the meaning from the sound; we measured that, and the 2023 study agrees. Agubu is a baby cry analyzer in the narrower, honest sense: it detects that the sound is a cry, checks that the recording is usable, and ranks the likely reasons from context. If you want the meaning, look at the day, not the waveform; the app does that for you and shows which facts it used.
Why did it reject my recording?
Three reasons: the room was too quiet to contain a cry, there was too much other noise, or the clip was too short. That is the quality gate doing its job; other apps in this category are known for giving a reason even in a silent room, and we would rather ask you to try again. Hold the phone about 30 cm from your baby, wait for the cry to be under way, and tap Listen to the cry again.
What age is it for?
Babies from birth to about two years. Age is one of the inputs to the ranking: the typical wake window and feeding gap of a newborn differ from those of a one-year-old, so the same context produces a different order of reasons.
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