Operating systems are packed of very useful tools that often pass unnoticedespecially if they are not activated by default, for many users who could take advantage of them. This is the case of a function of accessibility that Windows 11 premiered last year and allows automatic subtitling of practically everything that is played on a computer. We talk about ‘Live Captions’ or ‘Live subtitles’.
This function subtitle videos, music, podcasts and even video gamesalthough in the latter case it is where the results are less satisfactory. It doesn’t matter what program is being used for the video – a player like VLC either YouTube in the browser-, music and podcasts. The tool uses voice recognition technology to display subtitles and, Although its results depend on the clarity of the voices – the songs can easily be problematic – it is a very useful solution when no other subtitle option is available..
The greatest virtue of ‘Live Subtitles’ is that it is integrated with the operating system and, through a floating text box that overlaps, works on everything you do with the computer. The biggest beneficiaries are locally executed videos – forget about downloading subtitles – and podcasts. For music, it depends on each theme and in video games, depending on a user’s experience in Reddit, they do not work in full screen and have some delaysomething that does not happen in the previous cases.
To be able to use this function, whose processing is carried out on the computer and not in the cloud, you must have Windows 11 updated to at least the version 22H2. This way you can access automatic subtitling, but not to its translation. For this function, you must have one of the teams Copilot+ that Microsoft launched a few months ago focused on AI and with the version 24H2 of Windows 11.
Live subtitles are disabled by default. To activate them, follow these steps:
- Click on the menu Start and open Configuration.
- Select Accessibility.
- In the section Hearingclick Subtitles.
- Activate the slider Live subtitles.
- If you want to change aspects such as color, size or font, select Subtitle style.
From now on, you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows + Ctrl + L to activate the tool when you want to use it. By default, it comes with the language with which your operating system is configured and, if you want it to use other languages, you will have to download them from the tool options.
By clicking on the gear wheel icon from the subtitle box, you can set options such as a fixed default position, add languages or if you want to filter out profanity or include microphone audio, in case you are in a video conference, for example.