Live captions in Google Slides display recognized speech during a presentation. They can help an audience follow the speaker, but they are machine-generated and may contain errors. They are not stored as a transcript according to Google’s caption guidance.
Prepare the microphone and browser
Use a working computer microphone and an internet connection. Google’s current guidance lists the latest Chrome, Edge, and Safari versions. Check whether your organization has disabled captions before treating an unavailable control as a presentation error.
The browser controls speech-to-text processing and sends the recognized text to Slides. Review whether the content you intend to speak is appropriate for that processing arrangement.
Turn captions on while presenting
Start the slideshow. In the lower presentation controls, open the additional options and choose Captions preferences > Toggle captions, following the interface shown for your browser. Speak a short test sentence and inspect the resulting text.
Google’s guidance says captions do not include punctuation. Avoid describing the output as an exact or complete record of every statement.
Verify what the audience receives
Check caption visibility, text size, and overlap with slide content. If you share the slideshow in a meeting, explain that these are Slides captions for the speaker’s voice rather than a transcript of every meeting participant. Correct critical names or figures verbally when recognition is wrong. Because captions are not stored, use a separate appropriate workflow if a checked transcript is required. Do not promise that enabling this live aid creates a saved accessibility artifact for later recipients.
References
Reviewed against the linked official product guidance on November 3, 2026. Features, limits, screen labels, and access can vary by account, platform, region, and organization policy.