Google Duo testing closed captions on voice messages
The closed captions feature is currently not being tested for live video calls.
When a voice message is recorded, there will be a CC option to enable closed captions.
The audio file is shared with Google for the transcription, however, it is not stored by Google.
Google showed off live captions back in 2019 and this was a brilliant wat to convert speech to text for Pixel users. Now, information suggests that Google is testing closed captions on Google Duo and the feature is only limited to voice messaging. There is no information if and when the feature will make an appearance in a live video chat. The feature is being tested in Google Duo v82 and XDA developers got their hands on it and have demonstrated how it works.
When recording a message, there is a new CC button in the Message Player. This button lets you toggle the captions on and off. Once toggled on, the user will be able to see the captions in his/her video. XDA developers highlight that the audio content is shared with Google to enable the transcription but the audio is not stored by Google. XDA developers said, “The captions themselves were not absolutely accurate, but we did have some background noise in the audio and we also had to speak softly.”
There is no information when the feature will be made available publicly, but it is nice to see a closed caption feature implemented. When talking to people or listing to messages, it is hard sometimes to understand someone's accent. In such cases, CC is a great option.
If you need to see closed captions during a live call, sadly the feature is not available on Google Duo. It is however available on Skype. Live captions & subtitles in Skype let users read the words that are spoken during an audio or video call. Live captions & subtitles are available in Skype on Android (6.0 or higher), iPhone, iPad, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, and Skype for Windows 10 (version 14).
In other Google-related news, Dolby has announced that their app called On is now available on the Indian Google Play Store. The app is designed for musicians to help record and stream their audio or video performances. The app was already available on iOS but is now also available on Android. You can read more about it here.
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