Captioning technology has changed significantly in recent years.

What once required specialised software or a dedicated captioning service is increasingly available directly within the devices many of us use every day. 

Windows PCs, Macs, iPhones and iPads can now provide real-time captions for spoken audio, helping people follow conversations, meetings, videos, phone calls and other audio more easily.

For people with hearing loss, captions can provide an important additional layer of information alongside hearing aids, cochlear implants, remote microphones and other hearing technology.

They can also be useful for anyone working in a difficult listening environment, attending online meetings, learning in a classroom or simply wanting additional visual support for speech.

What are Live Captions?

Live Captions use automatic speech recognition to convert spoken language into text as the speech occurs.

Unlike subtitles that have been prepared in advance for a movie or television program, Live Captions are generated automatically from the audio being heard by your device.

Depending on the device, this may include:

• audio playing through the computer or mobile device
• online meetings and video calls
• streamed video and podcasts
• phone or FaceTime calls
• speech picked up through the device's microphone
• face-to-face conversations

This makes Live Captions particularly useful because they are not necessarily limited to one particular app.

However, automatic captions are not perfect. Accuracy can be affected by background noise, poor microphone placement, unfamiliar terminology, accents, rapid speech and multiple people talking at once.

For important medical, legal, emergency or other high-risk communication, automatically generated captions should not be considered a substitute for appropriately qualified communication support.

Live Captions in Windows 11

Microsoft includes Live Captions as an accessibility feature in Windows 11.

Live Captions are available in Windows 11 version 22H2 and later and can caption audio passing through the computer. Microphone audio can also be included, allowing the computer to assist with face-to-face conversations. Microsoft processes the speech used for Live Captions on the device, and once the required language files have been installed, captions can operate without an internet connection.

How to turn on Live Captions in Windows

The quickest method is:

Windows key + Ctrl + L

Alternatively:

Settings → Accessibility → Captions → Live captions

Windows allows you to change the appearance of captions, including their size, colour and background, which can make them considerably easier to read.

What can Windows Live Captions be used for?

Because Windows can caption audio at the operating-system level, it can be useful when:

• attending a Teams or Zoom meeting
• watching a video
• listening to a webinar
• completing online training
• listening to a podcast
• participating in a conversation near the computer

This can be particularly useful where an application doesn't provide its own captioning.

Live translation on Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft has taken the technology a step further on compatible Copilot+ PCs.

On supported Windows 11 Copilot+ computers, Live Captions can translate speech from a range of languages into English in real time. This functionality requires Windows 11 version 24H2 or later and compatible Copilot+ hardware.

For some users, this makes Live Captions both an accessibility tool and a communication tool.

Live Captions on Mac

Apple also provides system-wide Live Captions within macOS.

On a compatible Mac, Live Captions can transcribe either:

Computer Audio — audio generated by applications running on the Mac

or

Microphone Audio — speech occurring around you.

This means the same accessibility feature can potentially assist with a video conference in the morning and a face-to-face conversation later in the day.

Live Captions on Mac are processed on the device. They are currently available on Mac computers with Apple silicon, rather than older Intel-based Macs.

Australian English is supported by Apple's current macOS Live Captions implementation.

How to turn on Live Captions on a Mac

Go to:

Apple menu → System Settings → Accessibility → Live Captions

Turn Live Captions on.

The Live Captions window can then be repositioned on the screen and its appearance customised, including:

• font
• text size
• text colour
• background colour

You can also switch between captioning the Mac's audio and speech being picked up by its microphone.

Live Captions on iPhone

One of the most useful developments in mobile accessibility is the ability to have a captioning device already sitting in your pocket.

Apple's Live Captions are available on iPhone 11 and later, subject to supported languages and regions. Australian English is currently supported.

To turn them on:

Settings → Accessibility → Live Captions → Live Captions

Once activated, the iPhone can caption:

• audio from apps
• spoken content
• phone and FaceTime conversations
• speech occurring around the user

This last option can be particularly useful.

Rather than only captioning audio produced by the phone, the iPhone microphone can listen to someone speaking nearby and display a real-time transcription.

Using an iPhone for face-to-face conversations

For someone with hearing loss, this creates a simple portable communication tool.

Place the iPhone reasonably close to the person speaking, activate Live Captions and select the microphone as the audio source.

Their speech is then displayed as text on the screen.

This can be helpful in environments such as:

• reception desks
• medical appointments
• meetings
• classrooms
• shops and service counters
• small group conversations

Microphone positioning still matters. Moving the device closer to the person speaking will generally provide the speech-recognition system with a better signal than leaving the phone several metres away in a noisy environment.

The same acoustic principles that affect our ability to hear speech also affect automatic speech recognition.

Live Captions on iPad

iPadOS provides similar Live Captions functionality on supported iPad models.

To enable it:

Settings → Accessibility → Live Captions

An iPad can then caption either audio generated by the iPad or speech picked up through its microphone. The caption window can be moved, resized or expanded to full screen.

The larger screen can make an iPad particularly useful where someone needs captions for:

• meetings
• consultations
• classroom activities
• training sessions
• presentations
• longer face-to-face conversations

For some people, an iPad positioned on a table between participants can be easier to use than continuously looking at a smaller phone.

Captions during calls on iPhone and iPad

Apple has also expanded how call captions can be handled.

Current versions of iOS and iPadOS allow Live Captions to be used during calls, with options controlling how long call captions are retained. Depending on the setting selected, captions can also be copied or captured after the call. Apple provides audible notification to participants when the longer transcription-retention option is being used.

This is an important distinction between simply seeing captions live and creating a transcription that may persist after the conversation.

Privacy and organisational policies should therefore always be considered when retaining transcripts of conversations.

Which captioning option should I use?

There isn't necessarily one best option.

The most appropriate solution depends on what you are trying to hear.

Built-in captions or Teams, Zoom and other application captions?

It is worth understanding that there can sometimes be two different captioning systems available at the same time.

For example, during an online meeting you may be able to use:

1. captions generated by Microsoft Teams, Zoom or another meeting platform; or
2. Live Captions generated by Windows or macOS.

Application-based captions can have advantages because the application may have direct access to each participant's audio and may be able to identify individual speakers.

Operating-system Live Captions, however, have another major advantage: they can continue to provide captioning even when the particular application or website you are using doesn't offer captions.

The best approach is often to try both and determine which produces the clearest and most useful information in your particular environment.

Captions work best when the audio is good

Captioning is sometimes treated as though it can overcome any listening environment.

It can't.

Automatic speech recognition still relies on receiving a sufficiently clear speech signal.

Performance can deteriorate when there is:

• excessive background noise
• significant distance from the person speaking
• reverberation
• several people talking simultaneously
• very rapid speech
• unusual names or technical terminology
• a poor-quality microphone or audio connection

Improving the quality of the audio reaching the device can therefore improve both what you hear and what the captioning system recognises.

This is one reason captioning and hearing technology should often be considered complementary rather than competing solutions.

Captions don't have to replace hearing technology

For people with hearing loss, captioning can work extremely well as part of a broader hearing rehabilitation strategy.

For example, a person might simultaneously:

• listen through appropriately fitted hearing aids
• receive speech through a remote microphone system
• use direct Bluetooth audio
• watch the person speaking
• read Live Captions when something is missed

This is often much more effective than expecting any single technology to solve every listening problem.

A remote microphone can improve the speech signal reaching the listener, while captions provide additional visual information when speech remains unclear.

Another useful Apple option: Live Listen

For compatible Apple and hearing devices, Live Listen can turn an iPhone into a remote microphone.

The phone can be positioned closer to the person speaking while audio is transmitted to compatible AirPods or hearing devices. Current Apple devices can also display Live Captions during a Live Listen session, combining an improved audio signal with visual text.

This combination highlights an important principle in hearing rehabilitation:

better access to speech does not need to rely on one technology alone.

Are automatic captions accurate enough?

Modern speech recognition can be remarkably good, but it should never be assumed to be completely accurate.

Names, addresses, medications, numbers and technical terminology are particularly worth confirming.

If something is important, ask the speaker to repeat or verify it rather than relying solely on the caption.

Both Apple and Microsoft caution that automatically generated Live Captions may contain errors, and Apple specifically advises that Live Captions should not be relied upon in high-risk or emergency situations.

A useful accessibility tool you may already own

Perhaps the most important development in captioning is not simply that the technology has improved.

It is that it is increasingly already built into the devices people own.

A Windows laptop, MacBook, iPhone or iPad may already contain a powerful accessibility feature that has simply never been switched on.

For someone experiencing difficulty understanding speech, Live Captions can be an excellent additional communication tool — particularly when combined with appropriately selected hearing technology and good communication strategies.

Need help finding the right solution?

At Hear Room, we look beyond a single device or product.

Effective hearing rehabilitation is about understanding where communication becomes difficult, then combining the right hearing technology, assistive listening systems, captioning and communication strategies for the individual and their environment.

Whether the difficulty is occurring at work, in education, during meetings, over the phone or in everyday conversations, we can help identify practical ways to improve access to speech.

Better communication isn't always about making things louder. Sometimes, seeing what you didn't hear can make all the difference.