How-To

How to Use Live Captions on Windows 11

By Brian Burgess

Published June 22, 2023

If you are hard of hearing or need a better understanding of the audio coming from your PC, you can use Live Captions on Windows 11. Here’s how.

Having a hard time hearing the audio coming from videos on your PC? Starting with Windows 11 version 22H2, you can use live captions for automatic transcription to enhance the audio experience.

This accessibility feature helps users who are hard of hearing or other hearing impairments. In addition to working with videos you play on your system, the feature works for PC games sans built-in subtitles.

If you need a better way to understand the audio dialog in videos or games, you can use the Live Captions feature. Here’s how.

How to Use Live Captions on Windows 11

The Live Captions feature generates subtitles for any audio source playing on your PC. Once enabled, you can toggle it on or off with a quick Windows Key + Ctrl + L keyboard shortcut.

Note: Currently, the Live Captions feature is available in English, Chinese, Spanish, and more. Check out Microsoft’s Live Captions FAQ for a comprehensive list of languages. Also, you can only use Live Captions on Windows 11 version 22H2 or higher systems.

To enable the Live Captions feature:

1. Right-click the Start menu and select Settings.
2. Select Accessibility from the left panel.
3. Scroll to the Hearing section on the right and click the Captions option.
4. Toggle the Live captions switch to the On position under the video preview box.
5. When the Set up live captions bar appears at the top of your screen, click the Download button to get language files.
   Note: When you download, you agree to local voice data processing, but the data isn’t shared in the cloud.
6. A progress bar will display while the live caption language files are installed on your PC.
7. Once the download is complete, launch an audio source and check the feature is active.
8. The Live Captions box is displayed at the top of your screen by default, but you can change it.
9. If you want to change its position, click the Settings icon in the top left corner. Select the Top, Bottom, or the Overlaid on screen option. With the overlay option, the captions will appear in an overlay window that you can reposition as needed.

How to Enable or Disable Live Captions Using Quick Settings

If you are a fan of using the Quick Settings feature on Windows 11, you can use it to turn Live Captions on or off.

To use Quick Settings to enable or disable Live Captions on Windows 11:

1. Press Windows key + A to launch the Quick Settings menu.
2. Click the Accessibility button. If you don’t see Accessibility on the menu, you can add it by customizing the Quick Settings menu.
3. Toggle the Live Captions button on or off.

How to Customize Live Captions on Windows 11

You aren’t limited to the default size and color of the captions. Instead, you can customize how they look.

To customize Live Captions on Windows 11:

1. Click the Settings icon and select Preferences > Caption Style.
2. Click the menu button to change the Caption style you want to use.
3. For further customization, click the Edit button.
4. Type in a name for your caption style and choose the color, background, and opacity. You can see a preview of how your caption will look in the video preview box above.

Better Understanding with Live Captions

If you need a way to understand better what’s being said from audio sources, Live Captions works well. Note that it only displays dialogue and not applause or lyrics being sung like Closed Captioning provides. Still, it’s a great tool to know what’s being said in a game or meeting, for example.

Captions allow for a better understanding of audio, photos, and text. For example, you can add captions in Word or add captions to images in PowerPoint to help provide context to the data you present.

In addition to presentations, documents, and other audio sources, you can use captions on social media. For example, check out how to use auto-captions on TikTok.