This Tool Can Create Subtitles for Any Audio on Your Android
It may not be the most well-known use of artificial intelligence on Android, but it’s certainly one of the most useful: Live Caption will do exactly what its name suggests, placing real-time subtitles on top of audio, video and… Pixel phones – and your phone calls .
With AI-powered transcription, subtitles are displayed even if they weren’t provided by the app you’re using or the media you’re watching or listening to. This tool isn’t always 100 percent accurate, but it’s usually sufficient, and Google regularly rolls out improvements to Live Caption. You can even translate the audio into another language for accompanying captions.
This can of course benefit people with hearing loss, but it’s also useful for anyone who has to watch a video or listen to a podcast in a public place without headphones – like a lecture hall or library, or on an airplane or subway car.
Enable live subtitles
Live captions can be turned on in Settings on Android: select Accessibility and Live Captions if you’re using a Pixel, or Accessibility, then Hearing Enhancements and Live Captions if you’re using a Samsung Galaxy phone. The instructions below apply specifically to Pixel phones, but you’ll find that Live Caption works in a very similar way on Samsung devices, as well as phones from other manufacturers.
On the Live Caption settings screen, you have a number of options, in addition to a toggle switch that actually turns the Live Caption feature on and off. Tap Languages & Translation to select the languages this feature works with and instantly translate spoken text into another language if needed.
Back on the main Live Caption settings screen, turn on the Suggest detected languages switch if you want Android to try to figure out what languages you’re listening to and download the appropriate files. There are also options to hide profanity and show audio cues along with captions (for example, for laughter, applause, and music).
Click Caption Settings and you can control how captions appear on the screen. You can choose the text size, text style, text color, and even text opacity—or simply choose one of the preset options, which includes using the signature style set by whatever app you’re using.
Those of you with Pixel phones can also have captions on your calls: choose Calls with Captions and you can use them for all your calls, or get a prompt every time. Other options here allow you to set up typed responses to calls (so you don’t actually have to speak) and a synthetic voice that will be used to speak your typed responses.
Using live subtitles
If Live Caption is enabled in your phone’s settings, you can simply start playing something on the screen, such as an audiobook or YouTube video, and the subtitles should appear. You’ll get a notification at the top of the screen that Live Caption is turned on: tap the notification, then Turn Off to turn them off.
There’s actually another way to turn Live Caption on and off: if you press the volume button to bring up the volume slider and then tap the three dots below the slider, you should see a Live Caption button. This is shown if the Live Caption volume settings, mentioned earlier, is enabled in the Live Caption volume settings , and it is enabled by default.
When captions first appear, you’ll briefly see a toolbar underneath them: tap the captions bubble at any time to bring that toolbar back. You can click the language button to change it, click the color palette button to customize the caption style, and the three dots to navigate to the rest of the Live Caption settings.
You can move captions to a different location on the screen by touching and holding them and then dragging them to another location. If you want to increase the size of the caption overlay, tap the captions once, then drag the handle at the bottom of the overlay up or down. You can also double-click on the captions to expand or shrink the caption bubble.
Note that the subtitles remain on the screen even if you switch apps or return to the home screen as long as the audio continues to play. It’s also worth keeping in mind that turning Live Caption on will drain your phone’s battery faster. All audio, captions, and typed responses are stored and processed locally on your device—nothing is sent to Google.