Google Brings Live Captioning to Google Chrome
- Paul Thurrott
- Mar 18, 2021
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A new Chrome feature called Live Caption leverages machine learning to bring captions to content across platforms on the web.
“In 2019, we launched Live Caption on Android, and today we are bringing that same technology to the web with Live Caption on Chrome,” a Google representative told me. “When enabled, Live Caption on Chrome uses machine learning to caption video and audio content on your browser. This ensures that people who are deaf or hard of hearing can gain access to more audio and video content from across the web. This can also be helpful whether you’re on your computer in a loud area, learning a new language, or find captions helpful to use for following along on content.”
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According to Google, Live Caption works across social and video sites, podcasts and radio content, personal video libraries (including Google Photos), embedded video players, and most web-based video or audio chat services. Captions are created on-device, which allows them 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.
To enable Live Captions, open Chrome settings and navigate to Advanced > Accessibility. The feature currently supports English and is available globally on the latest version of Chrome on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it’s coming soon to Chrome OS as well.