Smartphone App Uses Voice To Predict Asthma, COPD Flare-Ups

FRIDAY, July 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Voice changes measured by a smartphone app can send up a red flag for people with asthma or COPD, warning them of an oncoming symptom flare-up, a new study says.

In the future, daily voice checks using such an app might be used to monitor for signs of an asthma or COPD exacerbation, researchers write in a study published recently in ERJ Open Research.

“We found that voice significantly changes during an exacerbation of asthma or COPD, and that this occurs as early as the first day that symptoms deteriorate,” senior researcher Dr. Sami Simons said in a news release. Simons is a consultant respiratory doctor at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

For the new study, researchers used a specially designed app to record and analyze the voices of 38 people with COPD and 35 people with asthma being treated at two hospitals in the Netherlands.

For 12 weeks, people were asked to record their voices daily — speaking out a long “a” sound, and then either reading a short bit of text or answering a question.

Researchers used artificial intelligence (AI) to compare the patients’ voices to breathing symptoms charted using daily questionnaires. A total of 38 exacerbations among 35 people occurred during the study period.

Results showed that at the very beginning of a flare-up, people’s voices changed in terms of tone, pitch, pauses and quality. These measures all veered back toward normal as flare-ups subsided.

“As the airways constrict during an exacerbation, the air that passes the vocal folds is limited. This weakens the normal vibration of the vocal folds, making it harder to keep the voice steady,” Simons said. “As a result, the voice of someone with an exacerbation sounds ‘breathier’ and 'rough.’ ”

These changes were able to be captured using an app on patients’ own mobile phones.

“Our research suggests that in the future people with asthma or COPD may use their voice to detect if they have an exacerbation and react accordingly,” Simons said.

The app — called TACTICAS (Telemonitoring for Asthma and COPD Through voICe AnalysiS) — is currently only available for research purposes, researchers said.

However, the team has created a website to explain how it works and to ask patients to contribute to the research by donating their voices.

Based on these findings, researchers have since developed AI that can detect oncoming flare-ups based on voice changes up to three days prior to the onset of symptoms. This technology is being tested in two ongoing trials in Brazil and the Netherlands.

Dr. Marc Miravitlles, vice president of the European Respiratory Society, reviewed the findings.

“When symptoms of asthma or COPD suddenly flare up, we want patients to get treatment as soon as possible,” he said in a news release. “Being able to spot a flare-up, or even anticipate it by a few days, could be really valuable in terms of reducing symptoms such as breathlessness or coughing as well as lowering the risk of lung damage, hospital admission or death.

“The idea of using a mobile phone to record and analyze patients’ voices for signs of a flare-up is very appealing,” Miravitlles continued. “If follow-up studies are positive, this technology could allow better monitoring and care for patients with asthma or COPD via a mobile phone wherever they are in the world. This is a good example of how new technologies and AI could really improve the quality of life of our patients with chronic respiratory diseases.”

More information

The Mayo Clinic has more on asthma attacks.

SOURCES: European Respiratory Society, news release, July 2, 2026; ERJ Open Research, July 2, 2026