Is your video sound not clear enough? Closed captions can help with that

Whether you have difficulty hearing sounds or find yourself in a loud place, closed captions help you listen through text. These texts describe background and non-verbal cues to give you the full experience of watching videos, whereas subtitles only let you know that someone is saying something and in what language.

Many of the best streaming video platforms support closed captioning, and you'll find similar accessibility features on all the top Samsung Galaxy phones. Here's how to enable closed captioning and Android's similar Live Caption feature on you

Closed-captioning is an assistive technology that transcribes speech from videos and audio messages to text in real time on your television, phone, or other visual display. The feature helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing to read and understand what they're watching. It works much like subtitles, but there's one small difference.

While both appear on your screen, closed captions (CCs) are intended for people with disabilities. They could go as far as describing background noises and audio cues, like the sound of wind blowing or fingers tapping a keyboard. Meanwhile, subtitles are for people who can hear but don't understand the language in the content or are in a noisy environment.

The closed part of the concept means that you can turn the feature on or off as you wish. Just as there are closed captions, open captions also exist. With the open type of captioning, texts are always in view on your screen. You can't turn them off because they are embedded into the video.

Below are the different types of closed-captioning:

Closed captioning dates back to the 1900s, when video content needed interpreters because they had no sound. As sound came to television, millions of deaf people lost access to movies as there was no longer a need for interpreters. In 1947, Emerson Romero initiated the first captioning of a film through a manual process of cutting videos into parts and slipping texts between them. Many human transcribers copied this process until closed-captioning became mainstream in 1951.

In recent years, tech giant companies started using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology to generate closed-captioning. Additionally, closed-captioning is widely available to mobile devices and computers, not just televisions. Google's Live Caption feature is an example.

At Google I/O in 2019, Google introduced a feature that allows you to read real-time captions while watching videos or listening to audio messages. Unlike traditional closed-captioning, humans don't need to write the captions or hard-code them into a video. Live Caption uses artificial intelligence that listens for sound on your device and automatically serves up the text transcription. Like most AI, it functions independently and doesn't require an internet connection to work.

Another major difference between closed-captioning and Live Caption is the accuracy. Automatically generated captions have more errors because an AI makes them, not a human being.

To toggle closed-captioning on or off, access your TV's settings menu with the remote control. Pressing the Home button will take you there. The Home button is the center part of the large round button on your Smart Remote. The steps may look different on your device, depending on what Samsung TV model you have. Some models have Subtitle Settings in the Accessibility menu, instead of Caption Settings.

On your Smart Remote, press and hold any of the volume buttons for two seconds to open the Accessibility shortcuts menu. Other remotes may have a dedicated button for the caption feature. Then, select Caption to disable the feature.

If the closed captions overlap important elements or other texts on your screen, switch their positions.

A quick trip to the Accessibility section in your Settings menu should help you enable Live Caption on your Samsung. A new icon appears when you press the volume buttons at the side of your phone. The button helps you turn Live Caption on or off without returning to the settings menu every time.

The device used in this guide is a Samsung A23 running on Android 12. The steps may look different on your version of Android.

Additionally, Live Caption works on the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, and some Android phones that run on Android 10 or higher. You may not have access to the feature on older devices. Some phones may also be unable to access it in other languages except English.

Live Caption automatically detects audio streams from your phone once it's on. A text box appears on your screen when the feature detects speech. You can drag the box around to keep it from blocking other elements on your screen. Drag the box to the bottom of your screen to dismiss it entirely.

Live Caption uses AI to listen to speech and generate captions. Your device isn't human, so spelling mistakes and misinterpretations are inevitable. The feature works best with slow media files where the speakers are audible and not talking over each other.

The Caption preference menu is where you'll tweak your caption's appearance and language. But since Live Caption only works for select devices, you might experience limited functionality. For one, the captions may not work on media apps that don't support closed-captioning. Additionally, you may be unable to change captions to your preferred languages.

To change the language of your captions, tap More options. Not all apps may support language settings.

Closed-captioning is an impressive lifesaver, and it has evolved over the years. More companies are developing software to generate fast and real-time transcriptions without needing a decoder or relying on human transcribers.

Google's Live Caption is closer to achieving that goal, but it's not perfect yet. The feature is still a hit-and-miss with transcribing audio, especially into multiple languages. It's also not designed for transcribing real-life conversations with other people. If a written transcription is important to you, learn how to use Google Live Transcribe.

Irene is a Freelance Writer who helps professionals and startups build an audience with original content online. She has written over 100 articles in the tech, e-commerce, and food niches with 3 years of experience. She loves gaming and listening to music, while she's not tapping furiously on her laptop.