Connect blindGram to Anthropic Claude

A step-by-step guide to connecting blindGram Assistant to Anthropic Claude (Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Haiku). Learn how to set up an API key, choose models, and troubleshoot issues.

Anthropic's Claude models excel at nuanced, natural-sounding image descriptions and insightful text summaries, making them a favorite for screen-reader users seeking vivid descriptions of visual scenes and photos.

Prerequisites

• An Anthropic Console account at console.anthropic.com.
• A prepaid credit balance in your Anthropic Console (separate from Claude Pro web subscriptions).
• blindGram and blindGram Assistant installed on Android.

Step 1: Obtain a Claude API key

1. Open Anthropic Console and sign in.

2. Ensure you have active credit under Billing (a $5 prepaid recharge is sufficient for months of personal messaging use).

3. Navigate to API Keys in settings or the top header.

4. Tap Create Key. Give it a descriptive name such as `blindGram Android`.

5. Tap Create and immediately copy the key value (starts with `sk-ant-...`).

> Security Reminder: Anthropic displays the full secret key only once. Paste it directly into blindGram.

Step 2: Configure blindGram Assistant

1. Open blindGram on your phone.

2. Go to Settings > blindGram Area > Assistant > AI.

3. Under The service:

• Tap Provider and select Claude.
• Tap API key and paste the key copied from Anthropic.
• Tap Save to confirm.

Step 3: Choose your Claude model

Tap Model to select which Claude model processes your requests:

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet (Recommended): Industry-leading vision benchmark performance. Provides exceptionally vivid, detailed, and human-like image descriptions of photos, scenery, and charts. #
• Claude 3.5 Haiku: Extremely fast and cost-efficient. Ideal for rapid message summaries and low latency on screen readers. #
• Claude 3 Opus: Deepest contextual synthesis for long texts and intricate questions. #

Step 4: Enable AI features

Switch on the features you want active:

• Describe image: In Describe image, enable Detailed description to send photos to Claude for spoken scene analysis. #
• Voice summary: In Voice summary, toggle on Summarize with AI. #
• Text summary: In Text summary, enable Summarize messages. #
• Ask AI: In Ask about messages, enable Ask AI about any message. #

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Problem: "Credit balance is too low" error

• Cause: Your Anthropic Console balance is depleted. Note that a Claude Pro web subscription does not apply to API usage. #
• Solution: Visit console.anthropic.com/settings/billing and add prepaid credits. #

Problem: "Invalid API key"

• Cause: Characters were missed or whitespace was introduced during copy/paste. #
• Solution: Create a fresh key in Anthropic Console, tap the copy icon, and paste it cleanly into the blindGram text field. #

Problem: Voice summaries transcription behavior

• Cause: Anthropic Claude does not provide an audio speech recognition endpoint. #
• Solution: blindGram Assistant automatically uses the speech recognition engine installed on your phone to transcribe voice notes into text first, then sends that transcript to Claude for summarization. Make sure your on-device speech engine has the matching language pack installed. #

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my Claude Pro subscription work with the API?

No. Claude Pro is a flat-rate consumer web product. The developer API is pay-as-you-go per token and billed separately through the Anthropic Console.

How do I review past descriptions?

All conversations and summaries are saved for up to one week in AI Conversations.