The App Formerly known as H—R: Now unlimited Control Over Real-World Sound

Some call it the ‘Tripy App’ and some call it ‘Mushrooms without the Mushrooms’ this app is for sure with an odd name. Recently there was an update on this app that the developers are thinking a new name of this app. However you can listen to the world in an amazing new way with the app formerly known as HEAR.

H_ _r (hear)is a soundscape app which uses the microphone on your Apple earbuds, or third-party headphones that come with a microphone, to manipulate background and foreground noise to produce a result that matches the purpose of various modes. There are seven filters or modes to choose from, which range from useful, to interesting, to trippy, to silly, to relaxing. Despite only having seven modes, H_ _r covers a whole range of uses.

H__r App is a free app that you can download from iTunes for your iPhone and requires iOS 8.2 and above for compatibility. The Seven filters or Modes that you will find in this app are as follows:

Super hearing Mode

You can also describe this as the app’s ‘flagship’ mode. It enables you to hear things you might not otherwise pick up. Like you are walking in the street and when other walk past you can catch a snippet of conversation that will otherwise pass you by. It’s interesting because at other times you’ll hear a distant dog bark, or a car rev around the corner that you might not otherwise notice. It’s pretty random what you might hear, but that’s why it’s so interesting.

Auto Volume Mode

This filter works wonders when you want to concentrate. It essentially blocks out all noise or rather doesn’t pick anything up but appears to recognize when someone is talking to you and amplifies that through the headphones so you don’t miss what they say. This one is a bit hit or miss and the presence of the disembodied voice is jarring and often distorts to a point where you can’t hear the voice anyway.

Relax Mode

This is easily one of the best modes or filters. It essentially harmonizes all the sounds that the microphone picks up from the shuffle of a jacket to a cough producing guitar-like strums and other musical notes that jump around in pitch. Very effective, and essentially provides you with an endless, natural soundtrack to zen-out to.

Happy Mode

With this mode you can turn the sounds around you into ‘Ecstatic cascades of happiness!’ But it is lot more dependent on the the environment you’re in and that will dictate its quality.

Talk Mode

Talk is  another very good mode;  trippy, odd, soothing, and often downright funny. The app pretty effectively auto tunes any voices talking around you into music. It can be tried in office environment with a handful of strong voices.

Office Mode

This mode is also good at helping you detach from an often loud and distracting environment by scrambling the sounds they’re hearing into something with little to focus on allowing you to concentrate on the task(s) at hand.

Sleep Mode

With sleep mode you can turn the sounds around you into echoes and can frequently be trippy. The idea is this kick starts some surreal dreams, but in reality, unless you live in a big, bustling city, or surrounded by wildlife, you’re unlikely to notice much happening.

Along with these you will also find that H_ _r has enough entertainment value in and easy to use features. Even better, all modes can be customized by tweaking the presence, or bass or volume of each mode. Also, if you leave the app, the sounds will continue to come through meaning you can do other things on your device while still experiencing the app. Hopefully H_ _r will sort out their naming problem soon and get some of its identity back.

This app currently do not support Bluetooth headsets because bluetooth audio does not support high quality microphone real time audio but may be in future you can use that too.