With the launch of the Pixel 4a, Google brought its fancy Live Caption feature to phone calls. Now the company may be rolling out the feature to more Pixel devices, including those in Canada.
XDA Developer’s Mishaal Rahman tweeted that the Live Caption for calls feature was available on his Pixel 4. Several people responded to the tweet confirming it at arrived on their Pixels too, including older Pixel 3 and 3a series devices.
The option to use Live Caption over phone calls now shows up on my Pixel 4. This feature first launched with the Pixel 4a. I was wondering when this would start to roll out for other Pixel phones! pic.twitter.com/GgwEg8jkRH
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) August 25, 2020
Google confirmed to MobileSyrup that the Live Caption for calls feature should be available on the Pixel 4a as well as older Pixels in Canada. However, it’s still not available on either my Pixel 4a or Pixel 4.
For those unfamiliar with Live Caption, Google debuted the feature with the Pixel 4. Live Caption lets the phone caption audio and put the text on screen so users can read it. Google says that Live Caption works on-device and doesn’t send audio to its servers to caption it. After a brief period of exclusivity, it rolled out to older Pixels.
The Pixel 4a brought an update to Live Caption that would allow it to work on phone calls as well. To access this setting, users need to press the volume key then click the Live Caption button to toggle it on. The first time you do this, a pop-up provides some info — tapping ‘Learn More’ opens the Live Caption settings. Alternatively, you can head to Settings > Sound > Live Caption.
From here, look for the ‘Caption calls’ option (it should be below ‘Live Caption in volume control’). Clicking that gives you the option to Live Caption calls all the time, never or have the phone ask every time.
XDA notes that Live Caption for calls works with most media and phone calls, including those made over third-party apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. However, it still only works for English.
Live Caption for calls will hopefully roll out to other supported phones, like the Galaxy S20 series, OnePlus 7T and 8 series and more in the future.
Update 08/26/2020 at 5:10pm: Google confirmed that Live Caption for calls was available in Canada and rolling out to users with older Pixel phones.
Source: XDA Developers
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