How to caption a phone call on iPhone, Pixel and Samsung

iPhone

Apple's iPhone User Guide files Live Captions under FaceTime, on a page called Use Live Captions and Live Translation. For the supported models, iOS versions and languages, start with our guide to Live Captions on every device. If the switch is missing or nothing appears during a call, go through our fix guide for Apple Live Captions on iPhone. If your iPhone or language falls outside Apple's list, the speaker method further down works with any phone. If you wanted Google's Live Transcribe on an iPhone, our guide to iPhone alternatives to Live Transcribe covers what to use instead.

Pixel and other Android phones

Google says Live Caption captions calls on Pixel and selected Android phones, so the first thing to find out is whether yours is on the list. There are two ways to switch it on:

• Open Settings → Accessibility → Live Caption and turn on captions for calls.
• Press a volume button, tap More, tap Live Caption, then tap Done.

The languages depend on the phone. Pixel 2 and 3 caption English only. Pixel 4 and 5 and selected Android phones cover English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Hindi and Spanish. Pixel 6 and later and selected Android phones add Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Turkish, Polish, Portuguese, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese.

Google also lists a Type responses during calls switch for Pixel 6 and newer, in the same Settings → Accessibility → Live Caption menu, so you can answer by typing.

Samsung Galaxy phones

Samsung's feature is called Call Captions and lives inside the Samsung Phone app.

1. Open Phone, tap the three-dot menu at the top right, then tap Settings.
2. Tap Call Captions and switch it on.
3. During a call, tap the Call Captions icon to start the live transcription.

Samsung lists 20 languages: Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Hindi, Polish, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, English, Arabic, Russian, Indonesian, Dutch, Swedish, Turkish and Romanian. The page doesn't say which Galaxy models or One UI versions have it, and its steps assume Samsung's own Phone app. If Call Captions isn't in your Phone settings, try the Live Caption steps above.

If call captions don't appear on Android

Google's Live Caption page names these limits:

• Battery saver. Live Caption turns itself off in battery saver mode. Switch battery saver off, then call again. Captions on calls also use more battery.
• More than two people. Live Caption isn't intended for calls with more than one other person, so conference calls are out.
• A calling app instead of the dialer. Captions might be unavailable for some calling apps. Try the same call through the phone's regular dialer.
• Hold music. Live Caption doesn't work on music, so a call on hold stays blank.

Calls on speaker, with any phone

When your phone has no call captions, caption the sound instead. Put the call on speaker and start Vocena on a second device next to the phone, such as an iPad or a Mac. Vocena runs on iPhone and iPad (iOS / iPadOS 26 or later) and on Mac (macOS 15.5 or later), and its live captions are free with no time limit.

Pick Microphone as the source. It hears you and the people around you, which includes the other person's voice coming out of the speaker. The app doesn't connect to the call line itself, so a quiet room and a decent speaker volume matter, and anyone nearby hears the call too. Captions stay on screen after the sentence has passed, so you can scroll back to a line you missed. If you want sound in your ears instead of text, you can send nearby sound to your AirPods.

Captioned telephone services in the US

In the US there are also dedicated captioned telephone services, including CaptionCall, CapTel and InnoCaption. Each has its own sign-up, so check the provider's own site for who qualifies, what it costs and which phones it works with.