Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

In this article, you'll learn how to turn on Live Caption to add subtitles to any media you watch on your Android phone. Instructions apply to devices running Android 10 and later.

How to Use Live Caption

Live Caption is installed automatically, but whether or not it's currently usable depends on whether it's enabled. Once you've turned on Live Caption, there are a few modifications you can make to it depending on your needs.

How to Enable Live Caption

There are two ways to activate Live Caption. You can do this before any audio is playing or you can wait until you need captions to turn it on.

The first and far easier method is to select volume up or down and then tap Live Caption. Depending on how your screen is oriented, it will show up beside (as it does in the screenshot below) or under the volume controls.

Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

If you don't see Live Caption, the other way to turn it on is through Settings > Accessibility > Live Caption. Tap Use Live Caption (or Live Caption if you see that instead) to turn it on.

The Live Caption screen will show up automatically to display the video captions, podcast captions, etc.

Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

You can quickly disable Live Caption by swiping the caption box off the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, just reverse the steps from above: use the volume menu or toggle it off in settings.

How to Change Live Caption Settings

There are a few settings you can change to control how Live Caption works.

To adjust how much text you can see in the caption area, just double-tap the box. If Live Caption is hiding something on the screen, press-and-hold the box and drag it up or down out of the way.

Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

To hide Live Caption from the volume control menu, or to caption calls, or toggle other settings like profanity visibility and sound labels, go to Settings > Accessibility > Live Caption.

Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

On the Accessibility page is a Caption preferences option where you can change the text size and caption style.

More Information on Live Caption

Live Caption requires extra power to continuously create video captions and transcribe other audio. Having it enabled all the time will drain your phone's battery faster, so be mindful of how often you use it.

9 Ways to Extend Your Android's Battery Life

English is currently the only supported language, but Google plans to broaden Live Caption to include other languages in the future.

Live Caption doesn't support music, so you can't use it to find song lyrics. There are also some cases where live captions aren't available because the media provider doesn't share the audio with Android.

While Live Caption still works even if your phone's audio is muted, it does require volume from the original audio source. In other words: Live Caption doesn't read lips!

Live Captions is one of those features you never really realized you needed until it was available. In essence, it captions every bit of audio that your device plays for easy accessibility. This guide will take you through how to enable it or disable it on your Android 12 device, as well as a couple of tips and tricks.

Table of contents

  • What are Live Captions and why would I want them?
  • How to enable Live Captions on Android
  • Changing language and translating Live Captions
  • Disabling Live Captions

What are Live Captions and why would I want them?

As mentioned, Live Captions are exactly that, captions that appear on your Android 12 device. When Live Captions are turned on, your device will display text for any audio that’s played, whether or not your volume is actually turned up.

This makes it a great feature if you forgot your favorite earbuds or just need to quickly listen to a tidbit of a podcast in a crowded area. It could also come in handy if you just really like having captions on as a backup method for understanding what exactly is happening. No matter what you use it for, it’s easy to access and enable.

How to enable Live Captions on Android

Live Captions is a feature that’s not only easy to turn on, but it’s easy to find. Simply raise or lower the volume. Once you do that, tap the little text button under the volume slider. A small notification will pop up towards the bottom of the screen letting you know Live Captions are on.

Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

Another way you can turn on Live Captions is by swiping down with two fingers from the top of your screen and looking through your Quick Settings. There should be a tile named Live Caption. All you need to do is tap it to enable or disable Live Captions. If you don’t see it, check out our guide to customizing your Quick Settings to find out where you can locate it.

Changing language and translating Live Captions

Whenever audio is detected and you’ve enabled Live Captions, a bubble will appear with the captions for whatever is playing. You can tap the bubble to slightly expand it for a second, which allows you to select a couple of options. First, you can change the language in which text is captioned simply by tapping the current language in the expanded bubble. You’ll be taken to a language selection screen, where you can choose a new one to download or enable. Currently, there are only five available languages for Live Captions:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese (beta)
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

Alternatively, you can go a step further and turn on Translate captions, which will allow you to switch easily between two languages and will translate source audio into the language desired. You can do this by tapping the bubble to expand it and then tapping the overflow menu. From there, you can toggle on Translate captions. Choose a source language and the language you want to translate to by tapping the language buttons at the top of the bubble.

Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone
Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

Note: You can long-tap the bubble and drag it anywhere on your screen to reposition it, similar to a PiP YouTube video.

Disabling Live Captions

There are a couple of different ways you can turn off Live Captions. The first way would be the same method you used to turn them on. Simply raise or lower the volume and then tap the text icon under the volume slider. It should change to a text icon with a slash through it.

The secondary way you can disable Live Captions is by long-tapping the bubble and dragging it down to the bottom of the screen. It should disappear after you drag it down. If it doesn’t drag it a little further to dismiss it.

Overall, the Live Captions feature in Android 12 is a good one to know how to operate. While they aren’t necessary at all times, they can come in handy more often than not.

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Turn off closed Caption on Android phone


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Turn off closed Caption on Android phone

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A collection of tutorials, tips, and tricks from the 9to5Google team helping you fix and get the most out of Android, Google Assistant, Chromebooks, Android TV, and more.

How do I take closed caption off my phone?

Go to your Android device's Settings. Tap Accessibility, followed by Captions. Slide the on/off toggle to On. Adjust readability settings as desired.