FaceTime birthday autotune

A coworker celebrated their birthday this week. They told me about a chaotic video chat with their family where everyone sang them a happy birthday. Unfortunately, many of them could not hold a tune very well.

This is not a unique problem. Approximately 4% of the population are tone deaf. As someone who has spent a non-negligible portion of their life playing music, I find this fascinating. It’s hard for me to sing off-key because I can’t quite wrap my head around what it’d be like to not know the notes.

However, many struggle with pitch. Why not help them? One can imagine a world where FaceTime and other video meeting applications automatically detect when you’re off-key and correct the pitch. If you check my social media handles, you can see a video demo of this experience rather than relying on your imagination.

In a way, this is face-tuning your voice. However, I’d venture to guess most people would feel offended rather than pleased by an app inserting itself to help you improve your pitch.

Have a friend who can’t hold a tune to save their life? Send them this newsletter.

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