It looks like Google is bringing its Live Caption feature to desktop platforms through Chrome. The incredibly useful feature had been exclusive in Android phones previously.
Spotted in the latest Canary versions of Google Chrome, Live Caption can be enabled by simply flipping a switch in Chrome's Accessibility settings. Once the feature is enabled, a prompt will appear within your browser window and the transcription should begin.
Closed captions are very convenient whether you have hearing difficulties or not, and come particularly useful in watching movies and TV shows, playing video games, and more. Additionally, captions also come in handy especially if your audio setup isn't the best there is.
For now, though, Live Caption for Chrome isn't perfect, at least not yet. Expect some errors here and there, but in time we're hoping they'd turn out accurate. And yet, the feature does an admirable job still and doesn't need an internet connection to work.
To use the feature, make sure you have the latest beta build of Google Chrome. If you've already done that, key in chrome://flags into the address bar and search for the Live Captions setting. Proceed to choose "Enabled" in the right-hand drop-down box and then relaunch Chrome.
Once Chrome is back up, go to the browser's Accessibility Settings and locate the new Live Captions toggle. After switching it on, you should see a caption box that will contain the display text for videos and songs. Like it's Android counterpart, Live Caption on desktops is likely available in English only.
If you've used the feature on Android at all, Chrome's variant will look familiar. A black box appears on the screen and shows the generated caption for whatever media is playing. This could be a podcast or YouTube video, for example.
If you don't feel like tinkering with your browser's settings that much but still want Live Caption to work, it's probably best to wait a while. There's a chance Google may offer a quicker way to enable the feature or perhaps switch it on for everybody. We're presuming the search giant is still ironing out some bugs to perfect the feature's integration on desktop browsers.
If you want to try out the feature though, it's available on Windows, Chrome OS, Mac, and Linux, but the Canary versions of Chrome are still pretty much bumpy. You may have to wait a while if you want Live Caption to be more stable.
