A tutorial on how to turn on the live captions on chrome so that all content viewed using the chrome browser will be automatically captioned.
Chrome browser now offers live automatic captions on ALL content viewed or heard through the browser: ALL video, ALL audio.
This means that should you be viewing a video on Vimeo or YouTube or in a Zoom call, the Chrome automatic captions will appear on your screen in a black text box if they’ve been enabled. You can drag that live caption box anywhere you want.
I tend to use Chrome live captions now for my telehealth appointments as the HIPAA compliant therapy software that I use is not captioned. I simply drag the captions to the top of the screen so that my appointments can be captioned.
Enabling Live Captions on Chrome:
- Open Chrome. Click the 3 dots on the top right corner

2. It will open up to a list of options. Click Settings

3. Settings will open up to a list of settings options. Go to Accessibility and click.

4. Accessibility will open and will have a list of accessibility options. Toggle the first option, Live Captions

That’s it!
You have enabled Live Captions on Chrome!
Test it out. Open up something with a video player:

The black block with white text is the Chrome Live Captioning. You can click and drag it anywhere on the screen. It is AI-based, so imperfect, but helps when nothing else is available.
Live Captions on Chrome are also available on your phone
if you log into your Chrome browser through your phone – just follow the same steps as outlined here. I didn’t enable mine as the screen is so much smaller so it gets wonky. But it’s. nice to know it’s there if I need it.

Meriah Nichols is a counselor. Solo mom to 3 (one with Down syndrome, one on the spectrum). Deaf, and neurodiverse herself, she’s a gardening nerd who loves cats, Star Trek, and takes her coffee hot and black.