Google has been testing Live Captions for Chrome on the desktop since May last year, when the feature first appeared in Chrome Canary. Now, all Chrome users on the PC can take advantage of real-time subtitles, as long as they install version 89 of the stable browser build. As noted by XDA Developers, the latest version of the browser has a new Advanced Accessibility section in Preferences that allows users to switch between active subtitles. When you turn it on, they will see the subtitles for any audio and video played in your browser that is in English.
When the tech giant launched Live Captions in 2019, it was initially only available for the Pixel 4. It ended up reaching other Pixel models before it became available on other mobile devices, like the Galaxy S20 and OnePlus 8. In addition, it did not work for calls at first, just on any media that plays audio. Almost a year after it was launched, however, Google unveiled Live Caption for calls on Pixel devices.
We have successfully tested the feature using videos on YouTube and Facebook and can confirm XDA’s note that it will work even if the video is muted. At the moment, however, the audio needs to be in English – it still doesn’t recognize any other language. Captions appear in a window at the bottom of the screen, which users can expand or collapse if they do not need to.