How to Broadcast Your FaceTime Calls Live
Every year, with every new iteration of its mobile operating system, Apple adds new accessibility features to the iPhone, and iOS 16 is no different . This time, Apple is adding Live Captions to FaceTime calls (taking into account the third-party Navi app we talked about earlier).
This feature instantly transcribes speech for a FaceTime call, helping hearing-impaired users, although like many other Apple accessibility features, anyone can use it. Live Captions can also be useful for people who have difficulty speaking English or people who are stuck in noisy environments.
Note . This is a new feature in the iOS 16 public beta , which will be available to all iPhones with a stable update coming out in fall 2022.
How to turn on live captions during FaceTime calls
Live Captions is an accessibility feature that needs to be turned on manually and works for both FaceTime and standard video apps.
To turn it on, go to Settings > Accessibility > Live Signatures (Beta) . First turn on the ” Live Captions ” feature, then turn on the ” Live Captions in FaceTime ” option.
In the Appearance section, you will be able to customize the appearance of the subtitles. You can increase the font size, make the text bolder, and even change the color to make the labels easier to read.
Once this feature is enabled, Live Captions will appear in a bubble at the top of a FaceTime call. Here’s what it looks like:
What’s especially cool is that this feature works even when you’re talking to multiple people, and Apple automatically assigns Live Captions to the speaker. Live Captions are displayed as a floating bar that you can move anywhere on the screen. If you only want to see text (and not faces), there is also a full screen mode.
Even better, since Apple creates these Live Captions on the device, you don’t have to worry about a third party service storing or processing your voice data.