Adding captions to your smartphone is a no-brainer nowadays.

Captions are popping up in more and more places in the digital realm, making content more accessible to an increasing audience.

They're on the videos in our social media feeds and on our TVs. Very likely, they're also showing up on 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 that plays on any app on your phone. Yes, that includes podcasts and FaceTime calls! All it takes is a few taps and a toggle.

Watch this video to see how Live Captions work on an iPhone. 

Live Captions 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 (U.S. or Canadian) set as the primary language, according to Apple. 

To turn on Live Captions: 

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Tap Accessibility.
  3. Find and tap Live Captions. 
  4. Toggle the feature on. 
    • This is also where you can toggle on FaceTime captions.

You can customize the caption's text size, color, and background by tapping Appearance on the line underneath 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 it. 

Tapping the circle will expand it into the transcription window where the captions appear.

You'll know it's working when no audio is playing and the transcription box reads "Listening." If audio is playing, a moving waveform will appear next to the name and icon of the app the audio is coming from.

If a transcription isn't appearing and the box reads "Paused..." tap on the pause button to unpause it.

Tapping the microphone button on the transcription box will caption the audio coming from outside your device.

Live Caption on Android

Android's Live Caption feature will caption speech from media playing on your device. 

Currently, the Live Caption feature only transcribes phone calls on Pixel devices.

To turn on Live Caption on devices using the Android operating system: 

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Go to Accessibility.
  3. Find and tap Live Caption.
  4. Toggle the feature on.

Elements like the font size and style can be changed in the Caption preferences setting under the Accessibility settings.

The feature is available on Android 10 and up, according to Google.

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