= Live captions on Linux
In a perfect world, all video would have transcripts, and live video would have captioning.
It's not just a requirement for people without hearing to be able to participate in pop culture and video chats, it's a luxury for people with hearing who just prefer to read what's been said.
Not all software has captioning built-in though, and some that does relies on third-party cloud services to function.
https://github.com/abb128/LiveCaptions[Live Captions] is a application for the Linux desktop that provides instant, local, and open source captioning for video.
== Install Live Captions
You can install Live Captions as a
https://opensource.com/article/21/11/install-flatpak-linux[Flatpak].
If your Linux distribution doesn't ship with a software center, install it manually from a terminal.
First, add the
https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.sapples.LiveCaptions[Flathub] repository:
[source,bash]
----
$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub \
https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
----
Next, install the application:
[source,bash]
----
$ flatpak install flathub net.sapples.LiveCaptions
----
== Launch Live Captions
To start Live Captions, launch it from your application menu.
Alternately, you can start it from a terminal using the `flatpak` command:
[source,bash]
----
$ flatpak run net.sapples.LiveCaptions
----
You can also use a command like
https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/launch-flatpaks-terminal-fuzzpak[Fuzzpak]:
[source,bash]
----
$ fuzzpak LiveCaptions
----
When Live Captions first starts, you're presented with a configuration screen.
image:live-caption-preferences.webp][Live Captions preferences]
You can set the font, font size, colors, and more.
By default, text that Live Captions isn't 100% confident about is presented in a darker color than your chosen font color.
If you're using Live Captions as a convenience, this probably isn't necessary, but if you can't hear the video then it's good get an idea of words that may not be correct.
You can get back to the preferences screen at any time, so your choices don't have to be final.
== Using Live Captions
Once Live Captions is running, any English words coming through your system sound are printed to the Live captions window.
image:captions.webp[Live Captions presenting text from a Jitsi call]
This isn't a cloud service.
There are no API keys required, there's no telemetry or spying and no data collection.
In fact, it doesn't even require network permissions.
Live Captions is open source, so there's no proprietary services or libraries in use.
To change the sound input, click the Microphone icon in the top left of the Live Captions window.
To open the Preferences window, click on the Gear icon in the bottom left of the Live Captions window.
== Open access
In my experience, the results of Live Captions are good.
They're not perfect, but in small Jitsi video calls it's excellent, and even with niche videos (rowdy tournaments of **Warhammer 40,000**, for instance) it does surprisingly well, stumbling over only the most fictional of sci-fi terminology.
Making open source accessible is vital, and in the end it has the potential to benefit everyone.
I don't personally require Live Captions, but I enjoy using it when I don't feel like listening to a video, or when I want help to focus on something that I might otherwise be distracted away from.
Live Captions isn't just a fun open source project, it's an important one.
