Live translation guides
Can I watch videos and lectures with live translated captions on a Mac?
Yes. SpeechShield's Translation mode listens to audio playing on your Mac, from YouTube, online courses or webinars, and shows it as continuous original and translated captions. The video doesn't need captions of its own, and with the overlay set to Script only, a single caption window sits over the video.
Watching with a caption window
- Choose the browser or app playing the video as the capture source to keep out other sounds like notification alerts.
- With the overlay set to Script only, controls appear only when you hover.
- Choose opacity, the glass effect, text size and light or dark in Settings → Overlay.
- Show the original and translation, the translation only, or the original only.
During a lecture
- Press ⌘⇧N to open the notepad and write a note at the current time, and ⌘⇧J to drop a bookmark.
- Catch up (⌘⇧') summarizes the last few minutes in your translation language.
- Hover a caption to get a one-line explanation of a term you don't know.
- Finished sessions stay in your history, and you can export them as Markdown or a .speechshield file.
Good to know
Speech over music, or singing, can be harder to recognize. With SpeechShield or Soniox recognition, uncertain words get a dotted underline.
Audio recording is off by default. Before recording a lecture, check the rules of whoever provides it.
Related questions
Does it work offline?
Yes, when translating on this Mac. Download the language models once while signed in, and recognition and translation work without an internet connection.
Which languages can it translate into?
13 languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Speech recognition understands more languages than it translates into.
Try live translation captions on your Mac for free
It shows audio from calls and videos as original and translated captions. No card needed.