Accessibility features in Windows 11 make it possible for more people to make the most out of their devices, and live captions are one feature that’s incredibly useful not just for users with hearing impairments, but also for those that may still be learning a language. Essentially, live captions transcribe every piece of dialog played by your computer, making it possible to read text rather than listen to it.
A hearing impairment would be the biggest reason to use live captions, but if you’re someone learning a language for the first time, it can be hard to understand what certain words are, and live captions can help with that as well. No matter your use case, if you want to use live captions, we’re here to show you how to set them up. Do note that you’ll need at least Windows 11 version 22H2 (build 22621) to have live captions on your PC.
How to use live captions on Windows 11
- Open the Settings app.
- Choose the Accessibility section on the left-side menu.
- Click Captions.
- Change the Live captions toggle to On. You’ll immediately see the live captions box at the top of your computer screen.
- To move the box, click the gear icon in the top right corner and choose Position, then where you want the box to be. You can put it at the bottom of the screen or turn it into a floating panel you can drag anywhere.
From now on, the box will display captions from any audio played out of your PC. Live captions aren’t available in every language, but they do work in 10 so far, including different dialects, such as various English variations.
Customizing the look of live captions
By default, live captions will follow the theme set by Windows 11. If you’re using a light theme, you’ll have a white box with black text, and if you’re using a dark theme, it will have a dark background and white text. However, if you find this isn’t readable or comfortable enough for you, you can change the look of live captions.
- Open the Settings app and go to the Accessibility section.
- Click Captions.
- Next to Caption style, click Default to open the dropdown menu with a few preset options you can choose from.
- If none of them work right, click Edit to make changes to the current selection.
- Choose a name for the new profile.
- Use the Text, Background, and Window tabs to change the color and opacity setting for each, as well as text size, font, and effects. A preview is shown at the top of the page, though the Window options will only affect the actual live captions panel.
- Play audio from your PC to force the live captions panel to update with your new settings.
That’s about all there is to it. You can now enjoy your media more comfortably by having audio converted into text in real time, and it will look the way you want it to. If you’d like to learn about other accessibility features, check out how to set up voice access on Windows 11, another big feature added with Windows 11 version 22H2.