If you’ve ever bumped your head with poor audio quality, you probably already know how handy captions can turn out to be.
Microsoft recently notched up a couple more points in this accessibility department after adding the much-sought-after Live caption feature. First announced on April 5, 2022—one among many features introduced in the Windows 11 22h2 update later—Microsoft has correctly tried to help everyone improve their audio comprehension better by adding in the captions feature.
Suffice it to say, the feature is a win for people with hearing disabilities, and in fact, for anyone who cannot hear the audio clearly in specific situations. In this short guide, we look at how you can enable live captions on your Windows 11.
How to use live captions on Windows 11
The Live caption tool is only available on Windows 11 that have the 22H2 update on them. So, if you haven’t updated your Windows for a while, now might be the time.
If your Windows has been updated, you can get started with Live caption by first launching the Windows Settings. Press the Windows key + I shortcut, or alternatively, head to the Start menu search bar, type in ‘settings,’ and select the best match to launch the settings app.
From there, select Accessibility > Captions. Then toggle on the switch for the Live captions button. If this is the first time you’re enabling the live captions, you’ll also have to download a language pack. The download dialog box will appear automatically on the top; just click on Download to go ahead with it.
The speech pack will be installed in a few seconds.
You can open the Live caption button by pressing the Windows logo key + Ctrl + L.
Moreover, you can also edit the caption’s view. For the Caption style setting, you have many options to choose from: Default, White on black, Small caps, Large text, Yellow on blue, etc. In fact, if you click on the Edit button just below, you’ll get the option to customize your live caption manually; from here you can tweak the style however you want.
Using Live captions on Windows 11
It’s without a doubt that live captions are a great addition to the Windows repository of accessibility tools. With the accessibility tools at your side, you can now add subtitles to the movies or videos you watch on your Windows and any online meetings or audio.
