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How to use Live Captions in Windows 11?

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  • 3 min read

Windows 11’s first major update — 22H2 came with some major improvements and feature additions to the OS. One of the most talked about features in the new updates was the presence of the Live Caption feature, which uses on-device computation to add subtitles to any media playing on your computer. 

While the feature itself is rather useful, it’s buried under accessibility settings meaning not everyone will be able to find it when needed. In this article, we’re going over the Live Captions feature, how it works and how you can customise it to your liking. 

Also read: How to make the taskbar transparent in Windows 11?


Windows 11 Live Captions explained

Before we get started on using Live Captions, keep in mind that you need to be on the Windows 11 22H2 update and enable the feature. Another thing to keep in mind is that as of right now Live Captions are only available in English. 

Enabling Live Captions

While it should be automatically enabled when you update your PC, here’s how you can in case it isn’t. 

Step 1: Press the Windows key + I to open Windows settings and head over to Accessibility. Click Captions from the options on the left. 

Step 2: Enable the Live Captions slider. 

Alternatively, you can hit the Windows + Ctrl + L keyboard shortcut to quickly enable or disable the feature.


Live Caption bar

Once you enable the feature, you’ll see the Live Caption bar show up at the top of your screen. You can drag the bar around and resize it to fit in a location convenient to you. 

While the captions aren’t perfect, they’re still relatively accurate for a feature that just released.

Additionally, you can also click the gear-shaped settings icon to enable features like a profanity filter, the option to include microphone audio, change the position of the bar, and an option to change the caption style. 


Customising captions

Last but not least, you can also customise your caption and caption bar’s appearance to make it more readable or match a certain aesthetic. This can either be done by clicking the gear-shaped settings icon and selecting the Caption Style option, or by going into the accessibility settings as mentioned before. 

Regardless, once you’re in the settings, you’ll see a few presets that you can choose from including the following:

  • Default
  • While on black
  • Small caps
  • Large text
  • Yellow on blue
There’s a lot of customisation available for the captions.

If these don’t do the trick for you, you can click the Edit button below the drop-down to define your own custom font, text colour, background colour and window colour. 

Also read: Windows 11 cumulative update kb5016691 failed: 10 Fixes

Yadullah Abidi

Yadullah Abidi

Yadullah is a Computer Science graduate who writes/edits/shoots/codes all things cybersecurity, gaming, and tech hardware. When he's not, he streams himself racing virtual cars. He's been writing and reporting on tech and cybersecurity with websites like Candid.Technology and MakeUseOf since 2018. You can contact him here: yadullahabidi@pm.me.

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