Why Is The Spirit Talker Ghost Hunting App Suddenly Speaking Latin?

It's not something we can answer, but the ghost hunting app Spirit Talker's sudden shift from English to the classical language of Latin has got many paranormal investigators wondering what's going on.

The Spirit Talker app is a paranormal research tool available for iPhone and Android inspired by the Ovilus device. It uses the sensors within your phone to generate words and phrases, based on the theory that spirits may be able to manipulate these inputs. I'd heard good things about the app, so I was looking forward to seeing it in action.

The app, developed by Spotted: Ghosts, had a strong start, spitting out two consecutive words that were highly relevant to the location that we were investigating, but then all of a sudden the app gave us the word "mortalis," which was clearly a Latin word. The team member said that this had been happening all night and wondered if the use of the ancient language might relate to spirits on the land the pre-date the building.

They went on to say, "I've never know the app do it before." At this point, I felt the need to speak up. I have heard of this particular app speaking Latin, just this week in fact. Another paranormal team had told me they were blown away by the Latin response they had been getting. They told me that they had spent the night translating the alien words to uncover their meaning and relevance.

During the night, we had several other Latin words come through the device, including "contaminatio," "verminus," "exspirare" and "vestigium." As well as the old English word, "archfiend," which dates back to the early 1600s and was typically used to mean the Devil.

I've since heard of other encountering, not only Latin, but also inordinate amounts of old English phrases. The app's sudden switch to Latin seems to have happened after the latest version of the app was released. This change occurred on May 24 for Android users and May 23 for those who've installed the iOS version.

The recent reviews of the app reveal that others have been experiencing the same peculiar behaviour. One user of the app wrote on the Google Play Store, "Latin, Spanish and Old English words started coming through all of a sudden."

Another has had a similar experience, "My app started showing quiet a few Latin words and it never used to. I've seen some paranormal investigators on YouTube getting some of these words too on the app." Another wrote, "I've noticed after the update almost everything it says now is in Latin."

While one investigator wrote, "The overload of Latin words that have recently flooded the app is making me second guess the authenticity of this. It's sad because on investigations, I have had some words and names come through that certainly pertained to the particular investigation we were on, but recently it seems less authentic. I'm torn on this app."

The high frequency of Latin in the app's output left one ghost hunter confused and frustrated, they commented "Can't use because responses are all in another language." Another reviewer simply wrote, "It only talks to me in Latin."

Is this significant change in response a result of the May update adding new Latin words and phrases to the app's database, or has there been a sudden rise in spirits communicating in Latin?

Spotted: Ghost are also the creators of the Paranormal Spirit Music Box app. Like Spirit Talker, it uses the phone's in-built sensors to alert you to possible supernatural interaction. However, the Music Box app is much simpler, and I think therefore more robust. If any of the device's sensors trigger, the app simply plays a piece of music, which eliminates the complication of a pre-loaded database of words and phrases.