Android Live Caption

by Google

System-wide on-device captioning of any audio on Android — calls, video, podcasts.

TL;DR

System-wide on-device captioning of any audio on Android — calls, video, podcasts.

Best for captioning videos, calls, and any audio output on Pixel and recent flagship Android devices. Pricing: Free with supported Android device.

Category
Desktop apps
License
—
Stars
—
Last push
—
Pricing
Free with supported Android device
Platforms
Android

What it is

Live Caption is the system-level companion to Live Transcribe — instead of mic input, it captions audio playing on the device. Runs an on-device streaming Conformer-based model.

Best for: Captioning videos, calls, and any audio output on Pixel and recent flagship Android devices.
Watch out for: Device support is gated by Google; not every Android phone gets Live Caption.

Install / use

Settings > Accessibility > Live Caption

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeYes
Languages supported11
HIPAA eligibleNo

Android Live Caption vs Whipscribe

FeatureAndroid Live CaptionWhipscribe
CategoryDesktop appsTranscription APIs
PricingFree with supported Android devicefree beta
Speaker diarization—Yes
Word timestamps—Yes
StreamingYesNo
Languages1199
PlatformsAndroidWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to Android Live Caption

MacWhisper
Jordi Bruin

Polished Mac app for Whisper — the default pick if you're on macOS.

freemium
SuperWhisper
Sindre Sorhus

Always-on system-wide dictation for macOS and iOS, powered by local Whisper.

freemium
Aiko
Sindre Sorhus

Free Mac App Store Whisper app — drag, drop, done.

free

Whipscribe is a managed faster-whisper + whisperX service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.