Sometimes, what my seven-year-old tabby cat Ophelia wants is obvious. Yodeling in front of her empty food bowl at dinnertime clearly indicates she’s at risk of imminent starvation. Other times, though, her meows are a complete and total mystery.
That’s where Sergei Dreizin and Mark Boyes, computer scientists at Akvelon, a software engineering company based in Bellevue, Washington, say they can help. The duo are the brains behind the MeowTalk app, which aims to “give cat owners the best tools available” for interpreting their pet’s needs.
“Cats have vocabulary,” says Dreizin. “And you definitely will understand your cat better if you’re actually paying attention.”
The free app records your feline's meows and translates them into a small range of phrases, such as “I’m annoyed” and “Feed me!” Users can rate the accuracy of MeowTalk’s translations, which further refines the computer model. Launched in November 2020, the app has been downloaded over 20 million times, and Dreizin estimates that the program has analyzed over a billion meows to date. (What are our cats trying to tell us?)
“We’re the largest depositors of meows in this galaxy,” he quips.
The app is part of an expanding suite of technologies designed to help us communicate with our furry friends. Another is FluentPet, which trains your pet to press buttons to communicate a need; for instance, a cat can learn to press a button that says the word “play.”
Cat behaviorist and communication expert Charlotte de Mouzon isn’t convinced of these products’ accuracy, but strengthening your relationship with your cat is always a wise goal.
“If people play with [the MeowTalk] app, maybe they will become more attentive to their cats," says de Mouzon, of Paris Nanterre University.
The cat’s meow
Domestic cats use all five senses to communicate with their fellow felines. Scents in urine and skin oil broadcast a cat’s health, sex, and receptivity to mating. Body language conveys mood: Fluffed-out fur and an arched back signals fear, whereas forward-facing ears and a swishing tail means contentment and alertness.
Vocal communication between cats, on the other hand, is mostly limited to hissing and growling to establish territories and settle disputes.
Notably, adult cats don't meow to each other—that's a vocalization reserved for people. (Why do cats have 276 facial expressions?)
“These sounds have evolved to serve a very functional purpose, and they’re not complicated,” says Jennifer Vonk, a psychologist at Oakland University in Michigan. “We just may not be as skilled at reading their cues as they are at picking up on ours.”
For instance, in a 2023 study, de Mouzon and colleagues found many owners don’t know when their cat is unhappy. Take purring: While cats often purr when they’re feeling good, they can also purr when uncomfortable or in pain.
Curiosity fueled the app
When Boyes and Dreizin were looking for data to inform their new app, they came across 2019 research that revealed cat meows contain certain shared characteristics.
The study authors then built a computer program to analyze audio recordings of 21 adult cats meowing in three scenarios: waiting for food, being brushed, and being alone in an unfamiliar environment.
Each scenario resulted in a specific type of meow that computer analysis could classify.
The MeowTalk founders used these audio recordings of tens of thousands of meows to develop their computer models, which is fueled by artificial intelligence.
It worked: 2021 study found MeowTalk can classify nine feline ‘phrases’ with 90 percent accuracy.
I love you… I love you not?
Even so, both Dreizin and Boyes stress that the AI program isn’t perfect—and Vonk and de Mouzon agree.
Each scientist downloaded MeowTalk with varying results; the app translated a meow from one of de Mouzon’s cats as “I love you," which seemed inaccurate, she says.
“It’s missing a lot of information,” de Mouzo says. “My cat was sitting next to her bowl and asking for fresh food.” (Read how your cat can recognize your voice.)
Vonk was equally skeptical of FluentPet, pointing out that cats already know what they’re communicating to their humans, and asking them to push a button complicates the matter. There’s inevitably a certain amount of guesswork, but simply paying attention to your cat’s cues and body language is a huge help, she says.
Indeed, de Mouzon says, people are far more adept at interpreting their cat when they can both see and hear them.
Ultimately, there will always be times when your cat's meows just don't make sense—and that's okay. “Communication is a co-learning process between each cat and their human family," de Mouzon says.