How to Turn On Live Captions on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and in Meetings

Where the switch is on each platform

The steps and language lists match each vendor's help page as of October 5, 2026.

iPhone and iPad

Open Settings, tap Accessibility, tap Live Captions and turn it on. Then tap Live Captions and choose Microphone for people talking near you, or iPhone Audio (iPad Audio on an iPad) for sound from apps such as FaceTime or Podcasts. If you wear Made for iPhone hearing aids, our guide to pairing hearing aids and using Live Listen covers that setup. Apple's Live Captions guide for iPhone lists it for iPhone 11 or later; the iPad version of the guide only says "supported models". Apple's iOS and iPadOS 27 feature availability page lists 18 regional versions of eight languages: Cantonese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

To keep what you read, tap More Options → Copy Captions and paste the text into Notes or Messages. For calls, the Keep Call Captions setting decides what stays. 1 Minute clears the captions when the call ends and blocks copying. 1 Hour keeps them for an hour afterwards, and everyone on the call hears a short announcement that it's being transcribed.

Apple's guide doesn't mention translation. Apple lists Live Translation for Messages, Phone and FaceTime as separate Apple Intelligence features, and our guide to iPhone Live Translation languages covers which languages work where. If the setting is missing or the window stays empty, see Live Captions missing on iPhone.

Mac

Apple's Live Captions guide for Mac lists the feature for Macs with Apple silicon. Choose Apple menu → System Settings → Accessibility → Live Captions and turn it on. The first time, the Mac downloads language data, so stay online. Click the Live Captions icon in the menu bar to switch between Computer Audio, for sound from any app, and Microphone, for people in the room. The window hides itself when nothing is playing; Keep Onscreen in the same menu stops that.

Apple says the audio is processed on the Mac. Its guide describes no way to copy, save or translate the captions. The window has a Type to Speak field, so you can type a reply and have the Mac say it out loud. The macOS feature availability page gives the same 18 language versions as the iPhone. On an Intel Mac, try Chrome's Live Caption for sound playing in the browser. For a missing setting or an empty window, see Mac Live Captions not working.

Chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux

Google's Chrome captions help page describes Live Caption for sound playing inside the browser: videos, podcasts, games, live streams and video calls. Click More → Settings → Accessibility and turn on Live Caption (on Linux, select Captions first). The captions appear in a bubble you can drag. For a language other than English, select Add languages next to "Manage languages" and pick it under "Preferred caption language"; Chrome downloads the language pack.

Google says Live Caption audio and captions are processed locally and never stored, so there's nothing to save. Live Translate, on the same Accessibility page, translates the captions by sending them to Google.

YouTube has its own captions and auto-translate, set inside the player. If those are the problem, see YouTube auto-translate not working. Instagram also has its own captions, and our guide to turning Instagram's captions on or off covers reels that have none.

Android: Live Caption and Live Transcribe

Live Caption captions sound playing on the phone, such as videos, podcasts, phone and video calls and audio messages. Press a volume button, tap More under the volume controls, tap Live Caption, then Done. If it isn't there, search Settings for "Live Caption"; Google's Live Caption help page says to ask the phone's manufacturer if it's still missing. Connect to Wi-Fi the first time so the language pack can download. For calls on a Pixel, Samsung or iPhone, see our guide to turning on captions during calls.

Languages depend on the phone. Pixel 2 and 3 caption English only. Pixel 4 and 5, and selected phones, add French, German, Italian, Japanese, Hindi and Spanish. Pixel 6 or later, and selected phones on Android U or later, cover 15 languages. Translated captions need Live Translate, which Google lists only for Pixel 6 and later. Captions are processed on the phone and never stored. Live Caption doesn't work on music, and Google says it isn't meant for calls with more than one other person.

Live Transcribe is for people talking around you, through the microphone. On a Pixel, open Settings → Accessibility → Live Transcribe → Open Live Transcribe; on other phones, search Settings for it or install it from Google Play. It needs an internet connection unless you've downloaded an offline language. Google's Live Transcribe guide says transcripts stay in the app for up to three days, or 24 hours if transcription history is off, and Settings → Export all stored transcription shares the text.

Windows 11

Live captions needs Windows 11 version 22H2 or later. Press the Windows logo key + Ctrl + L, or go to Settings → Accessibility → Captions and turn on Live captions. The first time, Windows asks for consent to process voice data on the PC and downloads language files. Microsoft's live captions guide says it works without an internet connection, processes audio on the device and stores no captions.

Live captions covers any audio playing on the PC. To caption people in the room as well, select the Settings button in the live captions window, choose Preferences and turn on Include microphone audio, which is off by default. Microsoft lists 21 language versions, including Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Translation works only on Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11 version 24H2 or later: over 40 languages into English, and 27 into Simplified Chinese.

On Windows 10, which Chrome still lists among its supported systems, try Chrome's Live Caption for sound playing in the browser.

Zoom

In a meeting, click Show captions in the toolbar, or find it under More, as Zoom's guide to viewing captions describes. Captions appear above the toolbar, and each line carries the speaker's display name. If the button says Request captions, the host has limited who can turn them on, and your click sends them a request. Caption language sets the language Zoom expects people to speak, for everyone in the meeting, and captions come out wrong when it doesn't match.

If you're the host, Zoom's automated captions settings page says the feature is on by default for paid accounts. You'll find it in the web portal under Settings → Meeting → In Meeting (Advanced) → Automated captions. Some accounts don't have it at all. Zoom lists 49 languages and dialects, and the host chooses which are offered.

Captions are no longer kept. Zoom's captions and transcript FAQ says that after a rollout on May 24–26, 2026, nobody can save or download captions once the meeting ends; during the meeting you can scroll back three minutes. For a record, the host or an admin has to turn on Meeting transcript. Translated captions depend on the host's plan or an assigned add-on, which our guide to Zoom translated captions covers.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft's Teams live captions guide gives the desktop path: More actions → Language and speech → Show live captions. On mobile, it's More options → Turn on live captions. The guide lists 57 spoken languages. If the captions come out in the wrong language, the organizer, a co-organizer or whoever started transcription can fix it under Caption settings → Language settings → Meeting spoken language.

Teams doesn't save captions; caption data is deleted when the meeting ends. Turn on transcription if you need the words afterwards, and see Can you save Teams live captions? for who can download the transcript. Translated captions need a Teams Premium or Microsoft Copilot licence. If the organizer has one, everyone in the meeting can use them.

Google Meet

On a computer, join the call and click Turn on captions at the bottom. Turning them on doesn't turn them on for anyone else. Google's Meet captions page lists 88 languages, most of them labelled as early versions. Font, size and colours are under More → Settings → Captions. You can scroll back through the captions, but only for the parts of the call where you were present with captions on.

Translated captions are a switch in the same Captions settings, after you set the language of the meeting. Google's translated captions page limits them to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Google AI Pro for Education. For a written record, Meet's Transcripts feature is separate, available on some Workspace editions in eight languages, and needs space in the host's Google Drive.

Mistakes, and when to ask for a human captioner

All of these are automatic speech recognition, and they get words wrong. Apple's Live Captions guide says they "shouldn't be relied upon in high-risk or emergency situations", and Zoom's automated captions page warns that they may not be accurate in healthcare. The W3C's accessibility guidance is blunter: its captions and subtitles page says automatically generated captions don't meet accessibility requirements unless someone confirms they're fully accurate, and a single missed "not" can reverse what was said.

For a medical appointment, a legal hearing, an exam or a lecture you'll be assessed on, ask the organizer for human real-time captioning, often called CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation). The W3C notes that a captioner can work remotely. Teams accepts captions from a CART captioner, and Zoom can show captions from a person or a third-party captioning service. Our guide to asking for a human captioner covers when to request one and how to ask.

Saving captions with Vocena

Vocena, which we make, shows free live captions with no time limit and saves each session. It runs on Mac (macOS 15.5 or later) and on iPhone and iPad (iOS or iPadOS 26 or later). It captions the microphone on all three, and audio from other apps on a Mac or on a physical iPhone running iOS 27. Translation is paid.