Adding titles to your smartphone is a simple matter today.
Descriptions are appearing in more and more places in the digital world, making content more accessible to a growing audience.
They are on videos in our social media feeds and on our TVs. They are very likely also featured in the video embedded at the top of this page.
Apple and Android devices have a built-in captioning feature, similar to the one on your TV, that transcribes the audio playing in any app on your phone. Yes, that includes podcasts and FaceTime calls! All it takes is a few taps and a switch.
Watch this video to see how Live Captions work on iPhone.
Live subtitles on iPhone
Apple’s Live Captions feature will transcribe audio from apps, including phone calls, directly onto your screen. The feature is available on iPhone 11 and later that have English (US or Canadian) set as their primary language, according to Apple.
To turn on live captions:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Find and tap live subtitles.
- Turn on the feature.
- You can also turn on FaceTime subtitles here.
You can adjust the caption text size, color, and background by tapping Appearance on the row below the toggle.
When the feature is turned on, a floating circle with a speech bubble lives on your screen. You can move it anywhere just by dragging.
Tapping the circle will expand it into the transcript window where the titles appear.
You’ll know it’s working when there’s no sound and the transcript box says “Listening.” If sound is playing, a moving waveform will appear next to the name and icon of the application from which the sound is coming.
If the transcript doesn’t appear and the box says “Paused…”, tap the pause button to restart it.
Tapping the microphone button on the transcribe box will caption audio coming from outside your device.
Live Caption on Android
Android’s Live Caption feature will caption the speech of the media playing on your device.
Currently, the Live Caption feature only transcribes phone calls on Pixel devices.
To turn on live captions on Android devices:
- Open the settings.
- Go to Accessibility.
- Find and tap Live Caption.
- Turn on the feature.
Elements such as font size and style can be changed in the title settings under accessibility settings.
The feature is available on Android 10 and up, according to Google.
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