Pet owners excited with app that translates cat meows to English phrases

• Mobile application has claimed it can translate what a cat is trying to say.
• MeowTalk will use smartphone to listen to meows and translate them.
• App became huge success and went viral in Japan with 17 million downloads.

A new mobile application has claimed it can translate what a cat is trying to say to its owner by using artificial intelligence (AI), reported Metro News.

While dogs are more expressive and owners can understand their emotions, it is difficult to interpret what a cat is trying to communicate. 

MeowTalk, the app that says it will allow users to decode their cats, will use a smartphone to listen to the meows and translate them into English phrases like "feed me" or "I'm in love".

The developers say that every cat has its own vocabulary and its own distinct meow for a message it wants to communicate. Two different meows in the same context can have different meanings.

They say that cats do not necessarily have a language since they do not share the same meows to say the same things. However, they believe machine learning can be used to translate individual cats' meows.

MeowTalk is not perfect since its users say that owners have to adapt to the cat's person language on their own.

A user said that the app allowed to alter translations and add them to the application "to make it more accurate".

"But if you already understand what the meow means, why use the app at all?" wondered a cat lover.

Regardless, the application became a huge success going viral in Japan with 17 million downloads. Nearly 250 million unique meows were recorded.