The introduction of SharePlay in iOS gave developers some ideas. The Navi application allows for example to integrate live subtitles during FaceTime calls. Extremely practical.

Have you ever wanted to have closed captions during your FaceTime calls? If so, please note that Navi, an application for Facetime, allows you to add them to your iPhone, iPad and Mac. The app cleverly uses the Apple SharePlay feature to show you live captions while you call with friends or colleagues. Another good reason to switch to FaceTime.

For people who have hearing problems, captions during video calls can literally change their lives. Likewise, those who have difficulty with oral English, for example, but who understand it more easily in writing, will find this feature very useful. We had the opportunity to test Navi and we must admit that the result is very satisfactory.

How to generate live captions during FaceTime calls

To get started, open Navi and make a FaceTime audio or video call. On Mac, you can click the caption icon in FaceTime to enable Navi caption. On iPhone, you can use SharePlay to take full advantage of Navi. Remember that you need to be on iOS 15.1 or later to use SharePlay.

The quality of the subtitles is pretty good as long as you stick to standard English and don’t mix the languages. The emphasis obviously affects the accuracy of the captioning, but the result is quite understandable.

The app is free to download and the live captioning feature is free at the time of this writing. Note, while Navi does support a number of languages, it only translates subtitles into your preferred language, not a tool like Star Trek’s Universal Translator. Live translation is a paid feature of Navi.

If you’re interested, head to the App Store to download and install Navi and enjoy subtitles during your FaceTime calls.

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