Google is reportedly expected to unlock a new feature for Live Captions on Android that would help users adjust the number of text lines to show on their Android device"s screen. The search giant will soon add a new "Grab bar" feature for Live Captions.
Live Captions is one of the best accessibility features on Android. It generates captions, automatically and in real-time, transcribing the speech from audio that the OS detects. It works similarly to how YouTube automatically generates subtitles for videos.
Notably, live captions are meant for people with hearing impairments, however, normal users can also use them to understand what is being said in the video while keeping the volume low. Android phones that support live captions show the generated text in a floating box.
However, users cannot change the size of this live caption floating box, not allowing them to adjust the visible number of lines. According to a post by Android veteran Mishaal Rahman, Google will soon add a grab bar that will help users quickly resize the live captions window.
This year"s Google I/O discussed the multiple new accessibility features, one of which was the "Grab bar" for live captions. According to Mishaal Rahman (via Android Authority), the new feature was supposed to roll out this month, i.e., May 2024. But we haven"t seen reports of this feature rolling out. Thankfully, during the presentation at Google I/O, Google shared an image of what the grab bar for live captions will look like.
Although Google"s live caption grab bar lets users adjust the number of lines shown, it doesn"t specifically mention how many lines can be shown. There is no clarity on when the rollout of this feature will happen. But it is expected that the rollout will happen soon since it was scheduled to happen this month.