How to Turn Off Live Caption (All Devices, 2026)

Live Captions are a great accessibility feature — until they're stuck on and you can't figure out how to disable them. Below: the exact steps to turn off Live Caption on every major device, browser, and app, with the common pitfalls that trip people up.

By TranscribeVideo.ai Editorial TeamApril 30, 2026Updated April 30, 2026

What is Live Caption?

Live Caption is an OS-level accessibility feature that automatically captions any audio playing on your device — videos, podcasts, calls, even music with vocals. It runs locally on the device using on-device AI speech recognition (no internet required for most platforms in 2026), and overlays text on your screen as audio plays.

Google introduced Live Caption on Pixel phones in 2019. Apple followed with Live Captions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac in iOS/iPadOS/macOS 16. Microsoft added Live Captions to Windows 11 in 2022 (build 22557+). Chrome added a built-in Live Caption feature in 2021. They're all named similarly, set up similarly, and — annoyingly — get accidentally enabled in similar ways.

Most people who land on this page got Live Caption turned on by accident — usually by pressing volume buttons in a specific sequence, by enabling a feature flag, or by a sibling/parent toggling it. Below: how to turn it off on every common device.

How to turn off Live Caption on Android

Android's Live Caption was the original, and the on/off process is the most polished. Three methods — pick whichever is easier.

Method 1: From the volume slider (fastest)

Press a volume button (up or down) — the volume slider appears on screen.
Tap the small Live Caption icon at the bottom of the slider (it looks like a speech bubble with lines).
That icon is a toggle — tapping it turns Live Caption off if it's currently on.

Method 2: From Settings (more permanent)

Open Settings → Accessibility.
Scroll to Captions (or Hearing on some devices).
Tap Live Caption.
Toggle Live Caption while playing media to Off.

Method 3: Disable it from showing in the volume slider entirely

On the same Live Caption settings page, turn off Show Live Caption icon in volume control. This stops the icon from appearing each time you adjust volume, preventing the accidental enabling that causes most "how do I turn this off" searches.

If Live Caption keeps turning back on: the volume-button shortcut is the usual cause. Disable the volume control icon (Method 3 above) and the accidental toggling stops.

How to turn off Live Caption on iPhone or iPad

Apple's Live Captions are buried in Accessibility settings.

Open Settings.
Tap Accessibility.
Under the Hearing section, tap Live Captions.
Toggle Live Captions to Off.

If you have Live Captions in FaceTime turned on as a separate option, toggle that off too — it's controlled separately from the system-wide setting.

If Live Captions appear only in specific apps: the system-wide toggle being off should cover everything. If a specific app still shows them, check that app's own accessibility or audio settings — some media apps have their own caption toggles independent of the OS.

How to turn off Live Captions on Mac

Live Captions on macOS work similarly to iPhone, but the path is different.

Open System Settings (in older macOS versions, System Preferences).
Click Accessibility in the left sidebar.
Scroll to the Hearing section.
Click Live Captions.
Toggle the Live Captions switch to Off.

You may also see a separate toggle for Live Captions in FaceTime. Turn that off if you don't want captions during video calls specifically.

If Live Captions reappear after restart: check that no Accessibility Shortcut is mapped to Live Captions. Settings → Accessibility → Shortcut → ensure Live Captions is not in the list. Triple-clicking the Touch ID button or pressing Option-Cmd-F5 can otherwise toggle it on accidentally.

How to turn off Live Captions on Windows 11

Microsoft added Live Captions to Windows 11 in build 22557. It captions any system audio — videos, music, calls — across all apps.

Press Windows + U to open Accessibility settings (or Settings → Accessibility).
Scroll to Hearing and click Captions.
Toggle Live captions to Off.

Faster: keyboard shortcut

Press Windows + Ctrl + L. This is the system shortcut that toggles Live Captions on or off. If you accidentally pressed this combination earlier, that's what enabled them in the first place.

If Live Captions persist after toggling off: check Group Policy (Windows + R → gpedit.msc → Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Control Panel → Personalisation). Enterprise-managed devices sometimes have Live Captions enforced via policy — you'll need IT to disable it.

How to turn off Live Caption in Chrome

Google Chrome has its own browser-level Live Caption that runs independently of OS-level captions.

Click the three-dot menu in Chrome (top-right) → Settings.
Click Accessibility in the left sidebar (or scroll to it).
Toggle Live Caption to Off.

Alternative path via the URL bar: type chrome://settings/accessibility and press Enter. The Live Caption toggle is there.

If captions still appear on YouTube or Netflix specifically: those are platform-level subtitles, not Chrome's Live Caption. See the YouTube and platform-specific sections below.

How to turn off captions on YouTube

YouTube's auto-generated captions are separate from OS-level Live Caption — they're served by YouTube itself.

Per-video

While watching, click the CC (closed captions) button at the bottom of the player to toggle off.
Or click the gear icon → Subtitles/CC → select Off.

Permanently for your account

Go to youtube.com/account_playback or click your profile → Settings → Playback and performance.
Uncheck Always show captions.
Save.

YouTube remembers your preference per account, so this will apply across all your devices when signed in.

How to turn off Live Caption in Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet

Microsoft Teams

During a meeting, click the three-dot menu → Language and speech → Turn off live captions. Each meeting starts captions-off by default unless you've changed your settings; if captions auto-enable, go to your Teams account settings → Captions and translations → turn off Auto-start.

Zoom

During a meeting, click the Show Captions button (or click the up-arrow next to it) → Disable Captions. Or in Zoom settings → Accessibility → uncheck "Always show captions in meetings."

Google Meet

During a meeting, click the CC button at the bottom of the screen — this toggles Meet's live captions on/off. There's no permanent off setting; captions default to off for each new meeting.

How to turn off live captions on a smart TV (Samsung, LG, Vizio)

Smart TV captions aren't the same as Live Caption — they're broadcast closed captions or platform subtitles. The button is usually CC on the remote, but the menu paths differ:

Samsung: Menu → General → Accessibility → Captions → Captions Off.
LG: Settings → All Settings → Accessibility → Closed Captions → Off.
Vizio: Menu → Closed Captions → CC → Off.
Sony: Settings → Display & Sound → Closed Captions → Off.
Apple TV: Settings → General → Accessibility → Closed Captions and SDH → Off.
Roku: Settings → Accessibility → Captions Mode → Off.

If captions still appear on a specific streaming app (Netflix, Prime, Disney+), open that app's playback settings during a video — each streaming service has its own caption toggle that overrides the TV setting.

Common reasons Live Caption keeps turning back on

Accidental volume-button toggle (Android). Pressing a volume button shows the slider, and the Live Caption icon there is a one-tap toggle. Disable the icon in Live Caption settings.
Triple-click shortcut (iPhone/Mac). Triple-clicking the side button (iPhone) or Touch ID button (Mac) is a common Accessibility Shortcut. Check Settings → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut and remove Live Captions.
Windows + Ctrl + L (Windows 11). The system shortcut for Live Captions. If you have a habit of pressing Win+L to lock the screen, occasionally hitting Ctrl by accident toggles captions on.
App-specific override. Some apps (FaceTime on Mac, specific Android apps) have their own caption toggles independent of the OS. Check the app's settings.
Enterprise policy. Work-managed devices may enforce Live Captions via Group Policy or MDM. The user-level toggle won't override this; ask IT.
OS update reset. A major OS update occasionally resets accessibility preferences. Re-disable after major updates.

Captions vs Live Captions vs Subtitles — quick clarification

Three similar-sounding features get confused:

Live Caption (the system feature): OS-generated captions for any audio playing on your device. Works system-wide. This article is about turning these off.
Closed captions (in a specific video): Captions baked into a video file or streamed alongside it. Toggleable via the player's CC button. Different from Live Caption — these are content-specific.
Subtitles (a different language): Text translation of dialogue from the video's source language to another language. Also toggleable in the player. See the full subtitle reference.

If you want to disable a specific video's captions or subtitles rather than the system-wide feature, use the player's CC button — not the OS-level Live Caption setting.

If captions are still appearing after all this

Three places to check if captions persist after disabling all of the above:

The browser extension you don't remember installing. Some Chrome extensions (Live Captions, Hearing Helper, etc.) inject captions independently. Check chrome://extensions and disable suspects.
The accessibility profile of your account. If you signed in to a fresh device with an account that has accessibility preferences enabled, those sync. Check Google Account → Personal info → Accessibility (or Apple ID → Accessibility), or your Microsoft account preferences.
The third-party app that bundled captions. Some video apps, podcast apps, and dictation apps include their own caption rendering — completely separate from the OS feature. Each needs to be disabled in its own settings.