Accessibility features focus on improving an interface for a particular disability, but often they can improve experiences for all users. The new Live Captions feature, currently in beta testing on select devices and countries, is a good example. Apple strives to convert all audio produced by your device into accurately transcribed readable text, just as Live Text can extract text from bitmap images.
To enable the feature, you must have an iPhone 11 or later with iOS 16 installed, a relatively recent iPad with iPadOS 16 (see this list), or an Apple silicon (M1 or M2) Mac with macOS Ventura installed. For iPhones and iPads, Apple says that Live Captions will only work if the device language is set to English (US) or English (Canada). The macOS description says more broadly that the beta is “not available in all languages, countries or regions”.
If you can use Live Captions (or want to check if you can), go to Settings (iOS/iPadOS)/System settings (Venture) > Accessibility. If you see a Live Closed Caption (beta) item, you can use it. Tap or click Live Captions allow it to. You can then tap Appearance in iOS/iPadOS or use the top level menu items in macOS to change how subtitles appear. You can individually enable or disable Live Captions in FaceTime to make captions appear in that app.
Live Captions appear as an overlay that shows the audio in English interpretation of any sound produced by your system. A live audio waveform corresponds to the sound that Live Captions “hears”. In iOS and iPadOS, you can tap the overlay and access additional controls: minimize, pause, microphone, and full screen; in macOS, pause and the microphone button are available. If you tap or click the microphone button, you can speak and what you say appears on the screen. This can be useful if you’re trying to show someone the text of what you’re saying.
The text produced in Live Captions is ephemeral: you cannot copy or paste it. It’s also resistant to mobile screenshots: the overlay is apparently generated in such a way that iOS and iPadOS can’t capture it.
Live Captions promises a lot, something to keep an eye on as it improves and expands. I tested Live Captions with podcasts, YouTube and Instagram audio. It wasn’t as good as any AI-based transcription I’ve seen, such as with video conferencing, but it made a valiant effort and was superior to the lack of closed captioning.
Apple could pair Live Captions with the built-in translation feature, and you could use it to speak in your own language and show a translated version to someone in their own language, or have live transcripts of video streams, podcasts, and other audio in a language other than the one you speak.
This Mac 911 article is an answer to a question from Macworld reader Kevin.
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