Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Android’s Live Caption feature reportedly coming soon to phone calls

Aaron Mamiit
By

Android’s Live Caption feature, which was introduced by Google on the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL with Android 10, will reportedly soon work on phone calls, according to code discovered on the mobile operating system.

Live Caption, first revealed at Google I/O 2019, uses Google’s speech recognition to provide captions for almost any form of content with audio, with just one tap on the volume rocker. However, it does not currently support phone calls and video chats, even after the feature was eventually added to older Pixel devices, as well as OnePlus and Samsung smartphones.

Recommended Videos

It appears that Google is finally expanding Live Caption’s capabilities, according to code discovered in the Android 11 Developer Preview for the Pixel 4 by XDA Developers.

The code revealed strings on the activation of Live Caption over a phone call. It also shows that enabling the feature will alert everyone on the phone call that what they are saying will be transcribed. “Hi, the person you’re about to speak with has call captions turned on. They’ll see captions of what you say to help them listen along,” says the audio file that will be played.

The discovery hints at the possibility of Live Caption for phone calls arriving in Android 11, which is expected to roll out within the third quarter of the year. However, there is always the chance that Google may pull the feature from the public release, possibly pushing it back to future updates for the mobile operating system.

How to activate Live Caption

For owners of Android smartphones that currently support the Live Caption feature, it is activated by playing the video, podcast, or other content that a person wants to have transcribed.

After pressing the volume up or down button, an icon will appear below the volume controls. Tapping it will make the Live Caption box appear on the screen. If the icon does not show up, the feature may be activated by going to the Sound menu under Settings, and turning on the Live Caption option.

Live Caption does not require an internet connection as the feature is processed within smartphones, with recordings not saved or archived in any way.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Aaron Mamiit
Aaron Mamiit
Contributor
Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…
Nokia’s newest Android phone has an unbelievably cool feature
The Nokia G42 in purple.

HMD Global’s newest Nokia phone is one you can repair yourself if key parts of it get broken. The Nokia G42 is the second device from the company in its QuickFix lineup and the first with 5G connectivity, but the level of quick and easy repairability is the same as the 4G Nokia G22 announced earlier this year.

This means you can replace a cracked screen, a dead battery, a broken USB Type-C charging port, or a damaged rear cover yourself. There’s no need to throw the phone away, visit a repair center, or pay someone else to do the work. HMD Global has a partnership with iFixit, where you can order the replacement parts and follow the simple instructions to fit them at home. It's something we rarely see in the smartphone world — even from the best smartphones from Apple, Samsung, and Google.

Read more
The 6 biggest iOS 17 features that Apple stole from Android
iOS 17 logo on an iPhone, Android logo on an Android phone.

Apple made a big splash at WWDC 2023 this year, with the big headline announcement being the Vision Pro augmented reality headset. But we also got a glimpse of what’s to come with iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS 14 Sonoma.

Though iOS 17 appears to be more of a quiet release this year that focuses on refinement and quality-of-life improvements, I have mixed feelings overall. To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed with the iOS 17 announcement based on what was actually shown off on stage, but there are some very cool features that Apple didn’t make a big deal out of (when it should have).

Read more
Android is still beating the iPhone in a small (but important) way
Android App Timer on Google Pixel 6a and iOS App Limit on iPhone 11.

Our phones, as you know, can sometimes become depthless abysses. Almost everyone has experienced the inconquerable pull of spending hours switching from one social media or entertainment app futilely. And this routine even has a name -- "doomscrolling."

Thankfully, overlords that control the smartphone world, namely Google and Apple, have been conscious of this issue and offer tools that constantly remind you to spare your eyes from the screen and revisit the physical world to replenish your senses.

Read more