How to use Live Captions in Windows 11

Learning how to use live subtitles in Windows 11 can be a great way to better understand the audio you are hearing. Whether it’s a movie that doesn’t have its own subtitles, a song you’ve just heard, or your friend’s microphone not turned up, Live Captions are a fast and automated way to add subtitles to any audio source.

You must have the Windows 11 22H2 update installed, so make sure you’ve updated recently before trying it. Once you’re ready, here’s how to use live subtitles in Windows 11.

How to enable live subtitles in Windows 11

The first step to using Live Captions in Windows 11 is to enable them. How to turn on live subtitles.

Step 1: Select the area of ​​your taskbar with your Wi-Fi network indicator, volume, and battery to bring up the quick settings menu. Then select Accessibility and then toggle live subtitles To At.

Alternatively press ctrl + Windows key + L.

Step 2: Live Captions will then start setting up. Choose Download when ready. Downloading live subtitle data may take a minute depending on internet connection. When it’s done, the top bar will appear Ready for lettering.

Step 3: Open a video, song, or anything else with audio (other than voice calls or mic recording, we’ll cover that below) and the live caption bar at the top of the screen should display what’s being said in plain text.

You can even compete with another subtitling service like YouTube’s built-in subtitles.

How to add live subtitles to your microphone

If you want to label what you say, you need to enable this specific feature – it’s disabled by default for privacy reasons.

Step 1: Start live subtitles if you haven’t already by pressing ctrl + Windows key + Land then select the Settings gear icon in the live caption bar.

Step 2: Choose labeling options.

Step 3: Choose Include microphone audio. Now when you speak into your microphone, it will appear in the live subtitle bar with subtitles.

How to customize live subtitles

You can customize the appearance of live captions and how they are displayed from the options menu.

Step 1: Start live subtitles if you haven’t already by pressing ctrl + Windows key + Land then select the Settings gear icon in the live caption bar.

Step 2: Choose position to choose where you want the live caption bar to be. You have a choice of Top, Bottom or Floating on the screen where you can move it as you like.

Step 3: Choose labeling options followed by profanity filter to filter out unsavory language.

Step 4: Choose label style and then Edit to customize the appearance of the text output. You can tweak the color, size, and font, and customize the background and window itself.

Now that you know how to use Live Captions in Windows 11, do you want to prove it to all your friends? How to take a screenshot in Windows 11.

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