At times, what my seven-year-old tabby Ophelia is seeking is clear. Yodeling in front of her empty food bowl at mealtime clearly shows she’s in danger of starving soon. However, at other times, her meows are utterly baffling.
This is where Sergei Dreizin and Mark Boyes, computer scientists from Akvelon, a software engineering firm located in Bellevue, Washington, say they can assist. They are the creators of the MeowTalk app, which aims to provide “cat owners with the best tools available” to decipher their pet’s requirements.
“Cats have a vocabulary,” states Dreizin. “And you will definitely understand your cat more if you actually pay attention.”
The free app captures your cat’s meows and translates them into a limited set of phrases, such as “I’m annoyed” and “Feed me!” Users have the option to rate how accurate MeowTalk’s translations are, which helps improve the computer model. Launched in November 2020, the app has surpassed 20 million downloads, and Dreizin believes the program has analyzed over a billion meows by now.
“We’re the largest collectors of meows in this galaxy,” he jokes.
The app is part of a growing array of technologies aimed at enhancing communication between us and our pets. Another example is FluentPet, which trains pets to press buttons to express their needs; for instance, a cat can learn to press a button that indicates “play.”
Cat behaviorist and communication specialist Charlotte de Mouzon remains skeptical of these products’ accuracy, but enhancing your bond with your cat is always a positive goal.
“If people engage with [the MeowTalk] app, they might become more attentive to their cats,” says de Mouzon, from Paris Nanterre University.
Domestic cats use all five senses to convey messages to other cats. Scent signals in urine and skin oils reveal a cat’s health, gender, and readiness for mating. Body language conveys their feelings: an arched back with fluffed fur indicates fear, while ears pointing forward and a swishing tail show contentment and alertness.
Conversely, cats’ vocal communication is mainly restricted to hissing and growling for territory claims and resolving conflicts.
Interestingly, adult cats do not meow at one another—that vocalization is reserved for human interaction.
“These sounds have developed to fulfill a specific purpose, and they aren’t complex,” explains Jennifer Vonk, a psychologist at Oakland University in Michigan. “We might simply not be as adept at interpreting their signals as they are at understanding ours.”
For example, a study conducted in 2023 led by de Mouzon and her colleagues revealed that many owners are unaware of when their cat is unhappy. Consider purring: while cats frequently purr when content, they can also do so when they are uncomfortable or in pain.
The idea for the app emerged out of curiosity. When Boyes and Dreizin searched for data to guide their app’s development, they stumbled upon a 2019 study that demonstrated that cat meows exhibit certain common traits.
The authors of that study created a computer program to analyze audio recordings of 21 adult cats meowing in three situations: waiting for food, being groomed, and being alone in a strange environment.
Each situation led to a distinct type of meow that could be classified through computer analysis.
The founders of MeowTalk used these audio recordings of tens of thousands of meows to create their computer models, powered by artificial intelligence.
The approach proved effective: a 2021 study found that MeowTalk can categorize nine feline ‘phrases’ with 90 percent accuracy.
Even so, both Dreizin and Boyes emphasize that the AI program isn’t flawless—and both Vonk and de Mouzon concur.
Each scientist tried out MeowTalk with varying outcomes; when the app translated one of de Mouzon’s cat’s meows as “I love you,” she found it inaccurate.
“It lacks a lot of context,” notes de Mouzon. “My cat was sitting by her bowl asking for fresh food.”
Vonk shared similar doubts about FluentPet, noting that cats already know how to express their needs to humans, and requiring them to press a button adds complexity. There’s always a degree of uncertainty involved, but simply being attentive to your cat’s signals and body language is a significant advantage, she states.
Indeed, de Mouzon mentions that people are much better at interpreting their cat when they can observe both visual and auditory cues.
Ultimately, there will inevitably be moments when your cat’s meows just don’t make sense—and that’s perfectly fine. “Communication is a co-learning journey between each cat and their human family,” concludes de Mouzon.
Almost all pet owners in New York State converse with their animals as if they are fellow humans, according to a recent survey.
Many think their dogs and cats can express themselves with barks or meows that indicate hunger, fear, or even just the need to go outside.
But do these animals respond in a Brooklyn accent?
This is the kind of question that Swedish cat enthusiast and phonetics researcher Suzanne Schötz is exploring.
The researcher from Lund University, who has three cats herself, has initiated a new study on feline communication.
For her research, Schötz is seeking participants with cats and their owners from Lund, in the southern part of Sweden, and from Stockholm, located 310 miles (500 kilometers) to the north.
People from these areas have distinguishable dialects, so her objective is to determine if their cats exhibit dialects as well.
She also aims to find out if different meows have different meanings and if cats react differently based on how humans speak to them.
National Geographic spoke with Schötz to learn more about her intriguing project.
So, what prompts cats to meow in the first place?
Cats utilize both visual and vocal communication to interact with humans, but they need to vocalize to attract our attention. When communicating with other cats, they mainly rely on visual cues and scent signals. A meow is usually directed at a human, not another cat.
Many cats and their human caregivers seem to create a pidgin form of language to foster better communication. It remains unclear whether there are commonalities in these languages or if they are distinct to each cat/human pair.
What distinguishes how people converse with cats or pets compared to other humans?
People appear to speak to cats in a manner akin to how they talk to young children. They often use a higher pitch, a wider pitch range, and their speech tends to have melodic patterns, often described as “sing-song.”
What kind of data are you collecting in this research?
We are documenting interactions between people and cats in two different Swedish regions. In one aspect of the study, we plan to analyze the melody of cat vocalizations to identify patterns related to various emotions or different breeds. In the other part, we intend to expose cats to various types of human speech and observe their reactions. Do they prefer being spoken to in a way that resembles talking to children, or do they prefer adult-like communication? And can they recognize familiar voices based on voice tone and speech style? This remains unknown.
How can you assess what type of voice a cat favors? What specific information are you seeking?
We will record different speaking styles from various individuals. Then, we will visit the cat’s home and set up speakers behind a screen. We will play back diverse melodies and human voices while videotaping the cats to monitor their reactions. We’ll analyze their ear movements, head movements, body posture, and similar behaviors.
If many cats utilize comparable melodies to express, “I’m slightly hungry, I would like a snack now,” as well as to indicate, “I’m really hungry, I’m starving,” we can start to interpret their communication.
It’s possible that certain breeds employ specific melodies, or that cats from areas where human speech possesses distinct melodic patterns vocalize differently. If we can demonstrate that cats adapt to these melodies, we may assist cat owners in better understanding these signals.
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