How do I open your phone's settings?

Swipe down from the top of your screen and tap the gear icon, or find the Settings app in your app drawer. You are looking for the Accessibility section, which is where Android keeps all features designed to help people with different needs.

How do I find and turn on live captions?

Inside Settings, tap Accessibility, then look for "Live Caption" or "Live Captions." Tap the toggle to turn it on. On Google Pixel phones, you can also press the volume button and tap the caption icon that appears at the bottom of the volume slider — that is often the fastest way to turn it on or off quickly.

How do I play audio and watch the captions appear?

Start a video, voice message, or audio clip. A dark floating box will appear on your screen showing the spoken words as text. The captions update in real time, a few words behind the actual audio. If no audio is playing, the caption box disappears automatically.

How do I move and resize the caption window?

Press and hold the caption box, then drag it to a different part of the screen — top, bottom, or any corner. You can also drag the edge of the box to make it taller and show more lines of text. This is helpful when watching a video so the captions do not cover the most important part of the image.

How do I use live captions during phone calls?

When you receive or make a phone call, the Live Captions box will appear and transcribe both sides of the conversation. On some Android versions, you may need to tap a "Captions" button that appears during the call. This can be very helpful if you are in a noisy place or if the other person is difficult to hear.

How do I adjust caption settings?

Go back to Settings → Accessibility → Live Caption to find options like turning off sound labels (which show icons for music or laughter), hiding profanity, and enabling captions during media on silent mode. Experiment with these to find what works best for you.

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Live Captions is a built-in Android feature that reads the audio coming from your phone and shows it as text on your screen in real time. Whether you are watching a video, listening to a voice message, on a phone call, or playing a podcast, the captions appear automatically — no internet connection needed, because everything happens on your device.

This feature was originally designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but many people find it helpful for all kinds of situations: noisy environments where you cannot hear well, watching videos in a quiet place without headphones, or following along when someone speaks too quickly.

Live Captions supports English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, depending on your Android version and phone model. Not every Android phone includes it — it is available on Google Pixel phones and most Samsung Galaxy phones running Android 10 or newer.

One important privacy note: because all processing happens on your device, nothing you hear is sent to Google or any other company. Your conversations and audio stay private.

The caption window floats on top of whatever you are doing. You can drag it to any corner of your screen so it does not block what you are watching. You can also expand it to show more lines of text at once.

Live Captions will not always be perfectly accurate — fast speech, accents, or background noise can cause errors — but it is remarkably good for a free, on-device tool. Think of it as a helpful aid, not a word-for-word transcript.

How to Turn On Live Captions on Your Android Phone

Open your phone's Settings

Find and turn on Live Captions

Play audio and watch the captions appear

Move and resize the caption window

Use Live Captions during phone calls

Adjust caption settings

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