Google first introduced live captions with the Pixel 4 phones in 2019, which create captions for any audio on the phone, whether it's an audio clip, a video clip, a phone call, or a voice message. The feature relies on artificial intelligence to recognize speech and automatically convert it into text.
What devices support Live Caption?
This feature is specific to Pixel phones and will work on the Pixel 2 or later model, but is gradually being added to non-Google phones as well, eg some newer Samsung and OnePlus phones.
On the Pixel 6 series and later devices, as well as some other recent Android phones, Auto Transcribe supports multiple languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. For older Pixel models, this feature is only available in English.
Additionally, the Pixel 6 and later phones have a text reply option with live captions, where you can type an answer during the call and your phone will read your answer back to the person you're talking to.
How to enable Live Captions on your Google Pixel phone
To enable live captioning on your Pixel phone, open the Settings app and follow the steps below:
- Click on the (sound and vibration) option, then choose (Live Subtitles).
- Enable the Use Live Caption.
You can also enable this feature by tapping the volume up or down button and then tapping the live subtitle icon that appears at the bottom of the volume meter on the screen.
You can then play any audio or video file, make an audio or video call, and a box will appear on your phone screen with notes about what was said in the audio. You can tap and hold the comment box to drag it up or down and place it where you want it, or double tap to expand it.
To adjust live caption settings:
You can customize your live caption settings by following these steps:
- Open the Settings app on your Google Pixel phone.
- Go to (sound and vibration) and click on the (Live Caption) option.
- Several options will appear on the screen, including:
- Hide swear words option: You can enable it to prevent typing swear words while calling up the text, audio clips or videos being transcribed.
- Live subtitles in volume control options: You can disable it to prevent live subtitles from being turned on via the volume control button.
Write responses using the Live Caption feature:
Pixel 6 or later users can use Live Caption to write text responses during calls by enabling the option to write responses during calls by following these steps:
- Open the Settings app on your phone and go to Sounds and vibrations.
- Click (Live Captions) and select (Answer during a call) to enter an answer during the call.
After activating it and starting to use the Live Caption feature during the call, a keyboard icon will appear, click on it and then start typing a response and the Liva Caption will read what you have written to the person you are talking to.