What is a live captions app?
A live captions app turns the speech around you into on-screen text in real time, so you can read a conversation as it happens. Inscribe shows full-screen, high-contrast captions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, generated on-device. There is no account to make and no upload, and captions keep running with no internet connection.
Captions are useful far beyond accessibility. People read them in loud cafes, in quiet libraries where a speaker phone is rude, in fast meetings where a name slips past, and in lectures where one missed sentence breaks the thread. Because the text stays on your screen, you can glance back at the last line instead of asking someone to repeat themselves.
Does the live captions app work offline?
Yes. Inscribe generates captions on-device using speech models stored on your phone, so captions keep running with airplane mode on. Audio is never streamed to a server for processing. That matters in a basement meeting room, on a plane, or anywhere the signal drops, which is exactly where cloud caption tools stall.
You choose the speech model that fits your device: Apple Speech is built in, and Whisper Tiny, Base, or Small download once and run locally. Bigger models read more accurately; smaller ones are lighter and faster. Once a model is on the device, no connection is needed again.
Live captions on iPhone and iPad
On iPhone and iPad, Inscribe captions your live recording. Start a session, prop the device where it can hear the room, and the transcript scrolls in real time. Switch to full-screen caption view for large, high-contrast text that is readable across a table or from a lectern.
The captions view is built for reading, not editing. Text is large, contrast is strong, and it works with VoiceOver. If someone says your name while you were looking away, a name-mention alert flags it so you can catch what was aimed at you.
Live captions on Mac
On Mac you get everything above, plus system audio capture. Inscribe can read the audio from any app, call, podcast, or video playing on the machine and caption it live. That is a macOS-only capability; on iPhone and iPad you caption a live recording or import an audio or video file instead.
So a webinar in your browser, a call in a meeting app, or a video in another window can all be captioned on-screen while they play, and the full transcript is saved when you are done.
Speaker labels while you read
Inscribe runs speaker diarization on-device, so captions can show who is talking without sending a single second of audio to the cloud. In a two- or three-person meeting, that turns a wall of text into a readable back-and-forth you can scan later.
Who live captions help
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing readers who want to follow a live conversation without a human captioner.
- People in loud rooms where a voice cuts in and out but the text stays put.
- Students in lectures who need to read a fast talker and keep a transcript to study from.
- Anyone in back-to-back meetings who missed a name or a number and wants to glance back instead of interrupting.
How Inscribe compares
| Feature | Inscribe | Built-in Live Captions | Cloud caption apps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works fully offline | Yes, on-device | Yes | No, needs internet |
| Full-screen, high-contrast view | Yes | Limited | Varies |
| Saves a searchable transcript | Yes | No | Yes |
| On-device speaker labels | Yes | No | Cloud only |
| Summaries and Q&A after | Yes, on-device | No | Cloud only |
| Account required | No | No | Usually |
What happens after the captions stop
Live captions are the front door. When the session ends, the same transcript can be summarized in a few styles (concise, bullets, action items), searched by keyword, and questioned with Ask Inscribe, which answers across your whole library and cites where it found the answer. All of that runs on-device.
Languages
Captions and summaries cover 15 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and Turkish. There is no translation feature; captions appear in the language being spoken, not converted into another one.
Getting started
Inscribe is free to download and has a free tier, so you can try live captions before deciding on a plan. Open the app, pick a speech model, start a session, and switch to the full-screen caption view. The first model download needs a connection; after that, captions run offline.
Related reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a live captions app that works offline?
Yes. Inscribe generates captions on-device on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so they keep running in airplane mode. Audio is not streamed anywhere for processing, which is why captions work when the signal drops.
Can I caption a video or call on my Mac?
Yes, on Mac. System audio capture reads any app, call, podcast, or video playing on the machine and captions it live. On iPhone and iPad you caption a live recording or an imported audio or video file instead.
Do live captions save a transcript?
Yes. Every caption session is saved as a searchable transcript you can summarize, search, and question with Ask Inscribe, all on-device. Nothing has to be uploaded to keep the text.
Does the captions app need an account?
No. Inscribe needs no account and no sign-up. It is free to download with a free tier, and your recordings stay on the device by default.
Get Inscribe
Private, on-device transcription with AI summaries and cross-library Q&A. Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Get Inscribe on the App Store