How to enable Live Caption in Android 10

Live Caption is a game changer for some Android users. Find out how to enable and use it.

If you haven’t experienced Android Live Caption, you’re missing out. This feature allows you to experience video without having to unmute your device. Even more important, Live Captions allow the hearing impaired to enjoy any video displayed from any source. That alone makes this feature incredibly important to the Android landscape.

Although you might have Android 10 on your device, there’s a possibility you have yet to see the Live Caption feature actually work. Why? Because it’s not enabled by default.

No need to worry, as I’m going to walk you through the process of enabling this game-changing feature on your device.

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What you’ll need

The only thing you’ll need is a device running Android 10. If you do have a device running Android 10, and you aren’t able to locate the section to enable Live Caption, that means the feature has yet to make it to your device. Fear not! Eventually this will make it to your smartphone–so long as it supports Android 10.

Open Settings and then navigate to Sound | Live Caption. In the resulting window you’ll see an On/Off slider for Live Caption (Figure A).

Figure A

Tap that slider until it’s in the On position. Once you’ve done that, you can also configure Live Caption to:

How to use Live Caption in Android 10

Once you’ve enabled Live Caption, open a video you want to watch and tap one of the volume buttons on your device. You should now see the Live Caption button at the bottom of the pop-up menu (Figure B).

Figure B

The Live Caption button in the volume pop-up.

Tap the Live Caption button to enable the feature. You should immediately see the Live Caption overlay appear (Figure C).

Figure C

You can tap and drag the overlay to any position on the screen you want. You can also turn the feature off in the same way you turned it on.

Congratulations, you now have the ability to view the captions for any video you view on your Android device. This feature is a game-changer for some users and a handy option for others.

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What you’ll need