How to get live captions for every podcast you listen to - on whatever app
Creator-produced captions, also in the form of a transcript, are available on many podcasts. By April 2024, there were 2.5 million podcast episodes with transcripts, which are playable using compatible podcast apps like Podcast Guru, Podcast Addict, and others.
Apple Podcasts launched transcripts within the Apple Podcasts app in March 2024. If you’re using iOS or iPadOS, you can read along with highlighted transcripts as you listen.
But if you don’t use Apple Podcasts, there’s still a way to turn on automated captions on everything you listen to.
Use Live Captions (beta) on iPhone
Launched with iOS 16 in Sep 2022, iPhone in the US and Canada has a feature called Live Captions (beta), which allows you to either get live captions on everything on your iPhone, or the apps you select (like your podcast app).
If you’re outside the US and Canada, you won’t, yet, have this feature.
Use Live Caption on some Android phones
Launched in 2019, Google Pixel phones and “selected other Android phones”, has a tool called Live Caption. It, too, adds an overlay with subtitles from all the audio you play on your phone.
It’s available in English and, from the Pixel 6 onwards, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
Use “Live Transcribe and Sound Notifications” on most Android phones
Alternatively, this is a free app from Google available for many Android phones.
The difference is that this uses the microphone on your phone to give live captions; if you’re in a quiet room, it’ll do a good job when listening to a podcast on your phone’s speaker, but it won’t be any good in the supermarket queue.
On your computer, using Google Chrome
If you use the Google Chrome browser on Windows, MacOS or Linux, Google’s Live Caption service will work on any audio you play.
To set it up, open the settings menu for Google Chrome, and search for 'live caption’. Turn the feature on.
Then, in another window, try playing some audio. You should see live captions appearing automatically. Hit the down arrow to make the live captions window larger.
- You can also turn all the audio on your device into mono if you need to.
| James Cridland is the Editor of Podnews, a keynote speaker and consultant. He wrote his first podcast RSS feed in January 2005; and also launched the first live radio streaming app for mobile phones in the same year. He's worked in the audio industry since 1989. |
