Live Captions
betaLive Captions turns spoken words into large, real-time text on your screen — put a laptop or phone on the table in a meeting room so someone hard-of-hearing can follow along. Please note: unlike the rest of PDFPowerHub, this relies on your browser’s built-in speech recognition, which in Chrome and Edge sends microphone audio to the browser’s speech service to transcribe. It is not fully on-device, so avoid using it for sensitive conversations.
Large, live captions of what’s spoken — put a laptop on the table so someone hard-of-hearing can follow along.
How to use Live Captions
- 1 Choose the spoken language.
- 2 Click Start captions and allow microphone access.
- 3 Read the large live captions as people speak.
- 4 Click Stop when you’re done.
Frequently asked questions
Does this run fully on my device?
No — and that is different from our other tools. It uses your browser’s speech recognition, which in Chrome and Edge streams microphone audio to the browser’s online speech service (e.g. Google) to transcribe.
Should I use it for private conversations?
No. Because audio is sent to the browser’s speech service, avoid using it for confidential or sensitive conversations.
Which browsers work?
Chrome and Edge on desktop support live speech recognition. Safari and Firefox generally do not.
Which languages are supported?
Several, including English, Bahasa Indonesia, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese — pick the spoken language before starting.
Is a transcript saved?
The captions stay on screen until you clear them or leave the page; nothing is stored by us.