Google officially expanding its real-time caption feature, Live Captions, from Pixel phones to anyone using a Chrome browser.
Live Captions uses machine learning to spontaneously create captions for videos or audio where none existed before and making the web that much more accessible for anyone who’s deaf or hard of hearing, reports XDA Developers.
The feature works across social and video sites, podcasts and radio content, personal video libraries (such as Google Photos), embedded video players, and most web-based video or audio chat services.
“These captions in Chrome are created on-device, which allows the captions to appear as the content plays without ever having to leave your computer. Live Caption also works offline, so you can even caption audio and video files saved on your hard drive when you play them in Chrome,” Google said in a statement on Thursday.
Live Captions automatically appear in a small, moveable box in the bottom of your browser if enabled while you’re watching or listening to a piece of content where people are talking. Words appear after a slight delay, and for fast or stuttering speech, you might spot mistakes. But in general, the feature is just as impressive as it was when it first appeared on Pixel phones in 2019.
Captions will even appear with muted audio or your volume turned down, making it a way to “read” videos or podcasts without bugging others around you. And even better, Google says Live Captions works offline, too.
The feature currently supports English and is available globally on the latest release of Chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux devices and will be coming soon to ChromeOS.
Google in December announced Live Caption support in its video collaboration app Meet for four additional languages — French, German, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Spain and Latin America).
Google Meet uses speech-to-text technology to provide live captions in meetings which help participants who may be deaf or hard of hearing follow along and stay engaged.
With a single tap, Live Caption automatically captions speech on your device and soon on Chrome on desktop.
The Live Caption feature is similar to Live Transcribe. But, Live Transcribe listens to what people around are saying and prints it out on a phone’s display, while Live Caption processes the audio from videos, podcasts and other sources to provide you with real-time captions.