Windows Live Captions are a built-in feature of Windows that provide a better understanding of audio and video with automatic transcription. While live captions may not be accurate, they can help to understand some words and context of a video.
Live captions are an application within the Windows desktop. They work in almost any app. You are not required to be connected to the internet to use Live Captions.
Turning on Live Captions
You can turn on Live Captions in one of four ways:
First, open quick settings by selecting the battery, network, or volume icon on the taskbar. Then click on "Accessibility" and turn on the Live Captions toggle.
Second, select the Start menu and choose "All apps." Then select "Accessibility" and choose "Live Captions."
- Third, go to Settings, then "Accessibility", then "Captions", and turn on the Live captions toggle.
Fourth, press Windows logo key + Ctrl + L.
When turned on the first time, live captions will prompt you to download live captions language files to be used by on-device speech recognition. If your language is not available, you can use another language during setup.
Settings
To adjust setting, select the cog wheel button in the top right of the live captions window.
Position of Captions
Select the Settings button in the live captions window.
- Select "Position".
- Choose either "Top", "Bottom", or "Floating on screen".
- Choosing Top or Bottom sets the captions window to appear as docked to the top or bottom screen edges in reserved space on your desktop, and other apps will not be blocked by the captions window. When docked to the top, you might find that live captions works well while sharing video in a virtual meeting or conversation, whereas in other cases, such as viewing videos, docking to bottom might work best.
- Choosing Floating on screen sets the live captions to appear in an overlay window which you can reposition as needed to avoid obscuring other apps in use.
- To show more lines of text in the captions window, increase the window size by using the mouse, touch, or keyboard.
Changing Caption Color
Select the Settings button in the live captions window.
Select "Preferences".
Select "Caption style". The Live Captions Accessibility settings will open.
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Under Caption style, do one of the following:
Select a built-in style from the dropdown menu. Use the Default built-in style to have captions displayed with colors appropriate to your device’s dark or light mode setting.
Or, select the "Edit" button to create a custom style that works best for you.
Other Settings
- To mask profanity: Go to the Settings menu, select "Preferences", and toggle the "Filter profanity" option.
- If you notice that captions are not appearing or are delayed, try closing unused apps to maximize performance.
Using Live Captions with Your Microphone
To caption your own speech:
Select the Settings button in the live captions window.
Select "Preferences" and turn on the "Include microphone audio" option.
Any audio captured by your microphone will be captioned, provided that no other audio on your device is being captioned. For example, if you use live captions to caption an online meeting with another person, if you both speak over each other, you will only see the captions for the other person while the other person is speaking.
To improve captioning accuracy when using the microphone, make sure to minimize background noise in your environment and speak directly into the microphone.