Accessibility features on our phones break down barriers. Designed to empower individuals with diverse needs, tools like magnification, high-contrast modes, live captions, Talk Back, transcription, and more are constantly gaining new features to keep up with evolving needs.
In an attempt to ensure that technology is inclusive for everyone, Samsung appears to be working on a new captioning feature — one that sets itself apart from the OS-wide Live Caption feature.
The South Korean tech giant’s upcoming Android 16-based One UI 8 isn’t expected to be a significant redesign. Instead, the update is expected to focus on refinements, bringing enhanced functionality to apps and tools like My Files, Now Bar, Secure Folder, split-screen multitasking, and more.
Now, you might want to add a new ‘Call Captions’ feature to the list. The feature, which is essentially the existing Live Captions feature, works exclusively for phone calls, presenting itself as a helpful alternative for users that don’t want captions across their Samsung phone’s entire system audio stream.
A smarter approach
The information was first highlighted by regular Android and Samsung news tipster Tarun Vats, who says that the feature has made its way to One UI 8’s yet-to-be-released ZYF5 build. For reference, the latest One UI 8 Beta 2, which was released earlier today, carries the ZYF3 build number. This means that the accessibility feature isn’t available to try out yet, even if you’re on the beta channel.
“Show what each person says on the screen during calls,” reads the feature’s description, suggesting that it will caption what you speak out too. “Captions can be useful when hearing is difficult. If needed, inform the other person that the call is being captioned,” reads the remaining feature description.
Currently, Samsung users are limited to Google’s Live Caption feature for real-time call captions. While helpful, Google’s feature is a system-wide solution, highlighting captions in an overlay regardless of the app you’re using. Samsung’s targeted approach makes it so that users can enable captions only when making or receiving calls, essentially preventing the use of unnecessary system resources in the background, all while enjoying a distraction-free experience when using other apps.
The feature is expected to make its way to users with the next One UI 8 beta.
