FAQ

A Quiet List is a select group of a city's quieter places — a small fraction of everything measured there. Every place on it has been measured by SoundPrint users with the app's decibel meter, qualified by SoundPrint's Noise Score, and manually reviewed by SoundPrint's team — and, in some cities, checked by SoundPrint ambassadors on the ground. Most start as a nomination from a user who could hear the person across the table.

See the Quiet Lists. A Quiet List tells you where you're most likely to hear each other — it isn't a promise about any single night.

In the app: after you take a SoundCheck at the venue, toggle Recommend to SoundPrint Quiet List on the submission screen. Nominations live in the app, so every one comes with a measurement.

Every city starts unlisted. As SoundPrint users in a city take SoundChecks and nominate the places they can talk in, the measurements and nominations add up. Once a city passes a threshold of SoundChecks — usually 250 to 500, more for a big city and fewer for a small one — and enough places have been nominated, SoundPrint reviews it for an official Quiet List. See Other Cities Worldwide for the cities closest to earning one, and email info@soundprint.co with the subject "Add Quiet City" to put yours forward.

SoundPrint is free on iPhone and Android.

The built-in decibel meter runs on iPhone and on Samsung's Galaxy S-series flagship phones. Other Android phones (for example Pixel, Motorola, OnePlus) don't have hardware consistent enough for a reliable meter, so on those phones you rate a place by ear — Quiet, Moderate, Loud or Very Loud — and everything else in the app works the same.

Why not every Android phone? Microphones and audio software vary widely across Android devices, which makes measurements less accurate and hard to compare between phones.

Yes. There is nothing to buy in the app.

Almost any: restaurants, bars, cafés, stores, movie theaters, gyms, hotels, offices, hospitals, arenas, parks, libraries, train stations. After a SoundCheck, search for the place by name; if it isn't in the database yet, tap the + button in the top right to add it.

First, close the app, reopen it, and try the SoundCheck again — the app sometimes needs a moment to load the places around your new location, especially if you're moving between venues. Leaving your phone's Wi-Fi switched on (it doesn't need to be connected) also helps it pin down where you are.

If the place still isn't listed: after your measurement, on the venue-selection screen, tap the + button in the top right, enter the venue's details and confirm. It's added to the database and selected for your submission.

The map shows a selection of places near you. Colored pins are measured places, with their sound level. Grey pins are places nobody has measured yet — an invitation to be the first. Widen the search radius from the filter at the top left if you're not seeing what you expect.

Your phone uses nearby Wi-Fi networks to work out where you are more precisely, even when it isn't connected to one. With Wi-Fi on, the app finds the places around you faster and more accurately.

Venues you add yourself with the + button are saved in the database and appear under My Submissions, but they don't have map coordinates yet, so they don't show as pins.

A decibel (dB) measures the intensity of sound. Zero decibels is the quietest sound a healthy human ear can hear. The scale is logarithmic: every increase of 3 dB is a doubling of sound intensity.

• Quiet — 70 dBA or below. Safe for hearing and great for conversation.
• Moderate — 70 to 75 dBA. Safe for hearing and conducive to conversation, a little louder.
• Loud — 75 to 80 dBA. Likely safe for hearing, but difficult for conversation.
• Very Loud — 80 dBA and above. Not safe for hearing with prolonged exposure, and very difficult for conversation.

These are guidelines; safe noise exposure is never guaranteed. In a Very Loud place: ask the manager to turn the music down, move to a quieter spot, wear earplugs, or leave — and consider making a noise complaint in the app so the venue hears it too.

The categories are defined in the published methodology (Part 2, section 6).

iPhone: reasonably accurate compared with a professional (Type 1) sound level meter. In testing by engineers at the University of Nebraska, iPhones were within about 1 dBA of the reference 90% of the time.

Android (Samsung Galaxy S): treat measurements as a good approximation rather than a precise figure. Android microphones and audio software vary more, so measurements scatter more, particularly at very quiet and very loud levels and outdoors.

SoundPrint measures the approximate decibel level and is not a replacement for a professional sound level meter. The number shown for a place is the average of all the SoundChecks submitted there — a reasonable guide to what it's usually like, not a guarantee of any particular night.

While you measure, the big number is the current level, with the minimum, maximum and average at the top of the screen. All three are submitted with the SoundCheck — plus anything you add on the last step: how easy it was to hold a conversation, how full the place was, tags, a comment, a Quiet List nomination or a noise complaint.

The number you see for a place in search results is the average of everyone's average there.

Every SoundCheck you submit earns points — a thank-you for helping build the map, and a way to watch your own contribution add up. Your total, your level and the points each SoundCheck earned are on the Profile tab of the app. Every SoundCheck you've ever taken counts, including the ones from before points existed.

Each SoundCheck starts at 50 points. On the last step of the submission you can add detail — how easy it was to hold a conversation, how full the place was, a few tags, or a comment. Each adds 25 points, up to 100 for a complete SoundCheck.

That score is then multiplied by the venue bonus (next question), and any explorer bonuses are added on top. A rating-only SoundCheck — where you rate the level without measuring it — earns the same 50 to 100, but no venue bonus.

Because a place's first measurement is worth the most to everyone. The venue bonus multiplies your score:

• 5× — the first measurement ever at a restaurant, bar or café
• 3× — the first measurement ever at any other kind of place: gym, store, train station, park
• 2× — the place has only one or two measurements so far
• 1× — the place is already well measured (three or more)

On top of that, a one-time explorer bonus the first time you measure a new kind of place (+25), a new city (+50), or a new state or country (+100). Loud places count just as much as quiet ones — the database needs both.

Five levels, by lifetime points: Listener (0), Reporter (500), Advocate (2,500), Guardian (10,000) and Champion (25,000). A complete first measurement at a restaurant is 500 points on its own, so one good SoundCheck can make you a Reporter. Champions also see where they rank among all SoundPrint contributors. Your weekly streak shows on your profile too, but it's for bragging rights only — it's worth no points.

No — and that's deliberate. Nominations and complaints are the signals SoundPrint's team relies on to build Quiet Lists and to show venues what their customers think, so they have to stay honest. Rewarding them would invite nominations and complaints made for the points rather than because they're true. The same goes for reviews and shares. Points are for measuring.

• Check that SoundPrint is allowed to use the microphone: on iPhone, Settings → SoundPrint → Microphone should be on.
• Make sure nothing is plugged into the phone and that a thick case isn't covering the microphone. Clear any debris from the microphone opening — lint or dust in that tiny hole is a surprisingly common cause of low measurements, and you can't see it without looking closely.
• Turn off Bluetooth while you measure (see the hearing-aids question below).
• Turn off your phone's sound-recognition accessibility feature, which listens in the background and can interfere: on iPhone, Settings → Accessibility → Sound Recognition; on Android, Settings → Accessibility → Sound Notifications.
• Apple's guide to testing the iPhone microphone.
• If all else fails: delete the app, restart the phone, reinstall, and allow the microphone the first time you take a measurement.

SoundPrint needs your location. On iPhone, go to Settings → SoundPrint → Location and choose While Using the App. On Android, allow location for SoundPrint in the app's permissions.

Audio devices paired over Bluetooth — hearing aids included — take over the phone's audio path and distort the sound level measurement. This is true of every decibel-meter app. You don't need to unpair your hearing aids: just switch Bluetooth off for the fifteen seconds of the measurement, then switch it back on.

Three things, each of which counts toward your city's Quiet List: take a SoundCheck whenever you're out, nominate the places you can talk in, and tell people. The Ambassadors page has ready-made materials for spreading the word.

When a SoundCheck comes out Loud or Very Loud, the last step of the submission offers Make a Noise Complaint. Switch it on and submit — that's it. (When a place measures Quiet or Moderate, the same spot offers a Quiet List nomination instead.)

The complaint is attached to that venue, not to you: it's anonymous, and complaints are counted per venue. The count appears in the app's search results ("With 3 Noise Complaints") and on the venue's page on this site, so people deciding where to go can see it — and so venues learn that their customers notice. SoundPrint also uses complaints to identify persistently loud venues in what it shares with press, city noise advocates and the venues themselves.

Noise complaints never earn SoundCheck Points, on purpose — they're most useful when every one of them is genuine. Make one when it was truly too loud to talk.

Yes — see the Research page for what's available and how to ask, or email research@soundprint.co. Journalists: Press.