How to Use Live Caption on Google Pixel 7a

Posted on 19th June 2023

Google Pixel 7a is a budget-friendly smartphone with some great features, one of which is Live Caption. Live Caption is an accessibility feature that caption live audio and video on your device in real-time. This is a great feature for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, or for anyone who wants to follow along with a video or audio recording without having to wear headphones. Here’s how to use Live Caption on your Google Pixel 7a.

First, open the Settings app on your Google Pixel 7a. Scroll down to the Accessibility section and tap on the Live Caption option.

Next, you’ll need to enable the Live Caption feature. Tap the toggle switch next to the Live Caption option to turn it on.

Once Live Caption is enabled, you’ll see a new Live Caption icon in the status bar. This icon will be present whenever Live Caption is enabled and running in the background.

To use Live Caption, simply tap on the Live Caption icon in the status bar and the captioning will start automatically. The captions will appear in a small box near the bottom of the screen.

You can move the caption box around on the screen by tapping and dragging it. You can also adjust the font size and opacity of the captions by tapping on the settings icon in the caption box.

To stop the captioning, simply tap on the Live Caption icon in the status bar again. The caption box will disappear and the captioning will stop.

As of July 2020, Google’s Live Caption feature is available on all Pixel phones running Android 10 or higher. If you’re not familiar, Live Caption automatically captions anything that’s playing audio on your device—whether that’s a video, podcast, or even just a voice recording. The feature is powered by on-device machine learning, so it doesn’t require an internet connection to work.

Here’s how to use Live Caption on your Google Pixel:

Enabling Live Caption

First, you’ll need to enable the feature. To do so, open the Settings app and scroll down to the “Sound” section. Tap on “Live Caption” to open the feature’s settings.

From here, you can toggle the feature on or off. When it’s enabled, you’ll see a small “Live Caption” icon in the status bar—tapping on this will open a new window with the captioned text.

Configuring Live Caption

There are a few options you can tweak in the Live Caption settings. For example, you can choose whether or not to caption profanity, and you can select which languages you want to be captioned.

One particularly useful setting is the “Show captions on lockscreen” option. When this is enabled, Live Caption will caption anything playing on your device—even if the screen is locked.

Using Live Caption

Once Live Caption is enabled, it will automatically caption anything playing audio on your device—no matter what app you’re using. For example, if you’re watching a YouTube video, the captions will appear directly over the video.

If you’re using an app that doesn’t support Live Caption natively, you can still use the feature by opening the Live Caption window. To do so, just tap on the “Live Caption” icon in the status bar.

Limitations

Live Caption is a great feature, but it’s not perfect. For one, it doesn’t work with every app—native support is required for the captions to appear directly in the app.

Additionally, Live Caption is only available in English at the moment. Google says that more languages are coming soon, but for now, you’re out of luck if you don’t speak English.

Finally, Live Caption doesn’t work with every type of audio. For example, it can’t caption phone calls or audio messages.

Despite these limitations, Live Caption is still a useful tool—especially if you’re hard of hearing or if you’re trying to watch a video in a noisy environment.

Enabling Live Caption on Google Pixel 7a

Once you have updated your Google Pixel 7a to the latest software version, you can enable Live Caption by going to Settings > Accessibility > Live Caption.

Once enabled, any media playing on your device will automatically have live captions generated for it. This includes video and audio content from apps like YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify, as well as any other media played through the built-in media player.

If you want to caption a video or audio clip that isn’t playing automatically, you can do so by long-pressing on the screen while the clip is playing. This will bring up the Live Caption controls, which will let you start and stop the captioning as well as adjust the captioning style.

Live Caption is a great way to make sure you don’t miss any important dialogue in your favorite shows and movies, and it’s also useful for understanding what’s being said in videos and audio clips when you can’t turn the volume up.

How to Use Live Caption on Google Pixel 7a

Live Caption is a new feature on the Google Pixel 7a that provides real-time captioning for any media playing on your phone. This includes videos, podcasts, and even voice and video calls. Here’s how to get started with Live Caption.

Enable Live Caption

Live Caption can be enabled from the Accessibility settings on your Pixel 7a.

1. Open the Settings app on your Pixel 7a.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Live Caption.
4. Toggle Live Caption on.

Using Live Caption

Once Live Caption is enabled, it will work automatically with any media playing on your phone. This includes videos, podcasts, and even voice and video calls.

To see the captions, just tap the Live Caption icon that appears in the volume control panel. The captions will appear in a small window that can be moved around the screen.

Customizing Live Caption

Live Caption has a few settings that can be customized from the Accessibility settings on your Pixel 7a.

1. Open the Settings app on your Pixel 7a.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Live Caption.
4. Tap the Settings icon (the gear icon).
5. Here you can customize the following settings:
   • Show captions in calls: This will show captions during phone and video calls.
   • Show speaker identity: This will show who is speaking in the captions.
   • Show punctuation: This will show punctuation in the captions.
   • Show sound effects: This will show sound effects in the captions.

Limitations

Live Caption is still in beta and has a few limitations.

• Live Caption only works with English at the moment. Google plans to add support for more languages in the future.
• Live Caption doesn’t work with all apps. It’s currently only compatible with YouTube, Gmail, Google Hangouts, and Google Search.
• Live Caption doesn’t work with all media. It currently only works with videos and podcasts.

Live Caption is a handy feature that can be useful in many situations. It’s especially useful for those who are hard of hearing or who want to watch videos without disturbing others.