How to use the Live Captions feature in Windows 11

21 March 2023

Live Captions feature in Windows 11

When making an audio or video call for work on Windows computers, you may miss parts of the conversation for several reasons, including: the Internet connection was cut off at certain moments or the sound was not clear so that you could hear the whole conversation. On the other hand, if the person has hearing difficulties, this may prevent them from picking up all the words spoken during a call.

Regardless of the reason for not being able to hear the entire conversation, you can use the live captions feature available on computers running the Windows 11 operating system. When activated, the computer will start writing the text of the audible conversations and display it on the screen so that you can capture all the words mentioned in the video calls. and voice calls.

Here's how to use the live captions feature in Windows 11:

1- Requirements for using the live captions feature in Windows 11

The live captions feature is available exclusively in Windows 11 and users of computers running Windows 10 cannot benefit from it. To use it, you also need Windows 11 22H2 or later. You can verify that your computer is running this version by following these steps:

Go to (settings) Settings.
Click on the System option, then About.
In the (Windows specifications) section, the version number appears next to the word (Version).
If the operating system on your computer is not updated to version 22H2, go to Settings, then click Windows Update and update the operating system.

2- How to use the live captions feature in Windows 11

To get started with live captions while on an audio or video call, follow these steps:

1- Start or join a video or audio call.

2- Click on the button that includes the battery, sound, and Wi-Fi icon, and this button appears on the right side of the bottom bar on the computer screen.

3- A list of multiple options will appear, activate the Live Caption option. Or you can activate the feature by clicking the buttons (Windows, Ctrl and L).

4- The first time you activate this feature, you will be asked to agree to the local processing of your voice data, as Microsoft promises to keep your speech private and not share it. The approval is by clicking on the (I agree) button that will appear at the top of the screen.

5- After approval, a special Live Caption window will appear on your screen to display the text of the conversation.

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6- By default, only the words of other people in the call are copied into the conversation text window, so your words that you say during the call will not appear. The sentences will be displayed in the window, as two consecutive lines, then two more lines, and so on.

7- If you want to see more than two lines of conversation text, drag the window from the top or bottom side to enlarge it. You can also drag and move the window around the screen to change its position, but it will remain visible on top of other windows, so that you can open other applications and perform other tasks on the computer while still seeing the text of the conversation.

8- If you want to see your own words appear in the form of text during the call, click the settings icon in the window that displays the conversation text, then click the (Caption options) option, and activate the (Include microphone audio) option. From the same menu, you can also activate the Filter profanity option if you prefer not to see any bad profanity in the chat text.

9- To change the location of the window that displays the text of the conversation, click on the Settings icon, then click on the Position option, and choose either Top or Bottom.

10- You can also customize the color, size, and background color of the conversation text by changing (Caption style), and to do so, follow these steps:

Go to (settings) on your computer, then click on the (Accessibility) option, then choose (captions) Captions. Then click on the (Caption style) button.
To start customizing the way the conversation text is displayed, uncheck the Default option and activate another option from the list of available options: White on black, Small caps, Large text, or Yellow on blue.
If you don't like any of the available options, click the Edit button in the Caption style section.