Google Live Caption

Name: Google Live Caption
Author: Google

by Google

System-wide live captions on Android, Chrome, and Pixel devices.

TL;DR

System-wide live captions on Android, Chrome, and Pixel devices.

Best for anyone on Android or Chrome wanting free system-wide captions for any audio playing on the device. Pricing: free · built into OS.

What it is

Live Caption is Google's on-device live-captioning feature, built into Android and Chrome. Captions any audio playing through the OS — videos, calls, podcasts.

Best for: Anyone on Android or Chrome wanting free system-wide captions for any audio playing on the device.
Watch out for: On-device captioning; quality below dedicated cloud transcription products.

Install / use

support.google.com/accessibility — built in

Features

Speaker diarization	No
Word-level timestamps	No
Streaming / real-time	No
Languages supported	10
HIPAA eligible	No

Google Live Caption vs Whipscribe

Feature	Google Live Caption	Whipscribe
Category	Products	Transcription APIs
Pricing	free · built into OS	free beta
Speaker diarization	—	Yes
Word timestamps	—	Yes
Streaming	—	No
Languages	10	99
Platforms	Android, Chrome	Web, API, MCP

Alternatives to Google Live Caption

Otter.ai

Meeting-bot transcription product for Zoom/Meet/Teams.

free / from $10/mo

Rev

Human + AI transcription, highest accuracy tier on the market.

AI from $0.25/min · human from $1.50/min

Descript

Audio/video editor that treats the transcript as the timeline — different product category.

free / from $12/mo

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.