How to Get Real-Time Captions on Mac
Real-time captions turn any audio playing on your Mac into live on-screen text. This is essential for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, helpful in noisy environments where you cannot use speakers, and useful for following along with content in a second language. macOS Sequoia introduced Live Captions as a system feature, but it has language limitations. Here is how to set up comprehensive real-time captions on your Mac.
Step-by-Step Guide
Evaluate built-in options
macOS offers Live Captions (System Settings > Accessibility > Live Captions) which works system-wide for English. If you need captions in other languages, or want more control over the display, a third-party solution provides broader coverage.
Set up your captioning tool
Open Glasscribe from the menu bar and select the appropriate audio source: "System Audio" for captions on videos, meetings, and calls playing through your Mac, or "Microphone" for captioning in-person conversations.
Enable the floating overlay window
Turn on the floating overlay in Glasscribe's settings. This creates a transparent, always-on-top window that displays the live transcript. You can resize and reposition it anywhere on screen — place it near the video you are watching or at the bottom of the screen like traditional subtitles.
Choose your language and optional translation
Set the source language to match the audio. If you want captions in a different language from the audio, enable live translation and select your target language. For example, watch a Japanese video with English captions appearing in real time.
Start captioning
Begin the transcription session. Captions appear in the floating overlay with minimal delay as audio plays. The overlay stays on top of all windows, so you can continue using any app while reading the captions.
Pro Tips
Frequently Asked Questions
How much delay is there in real-time captions?
On-device processing introduces roughly 0.5 to 1.5 seconds of delay, depending on your Mac's hardware (Apple Silicon Macs are faster). This is comparable to or faster than cloud-based captioning services, which add network latency on top of processing time.
Do real-time captions work with phone calls on Mac?
Yes. If you take phone calls or FaceTime calls on your Mac, system audio capture picks up the call audio and generates live captions. This also works with VoIP apps like Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, and Discord.
Can I save the captions for later?
Yes. Unlike ephemeral live caption systems, the full transcript is saved in session history. You can review, search, and export it as .txt or .srt after the session ends.