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When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
I use auto captions for phone calls and streaming video. Since the iOS 18 update they are not working consistently and when they do, they’re way off. The new functionality is very poor. Is anyone else having this issue? It’s a major accessibility issue. For anyone reading this, if you’re deaf or hard of hearing, do not buy an iPhone.
iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 18
Hi JeffersonStoner
welcome to the Apple (user-to-user) Community!
Re: Why do Auto Captions no longer work in ios 18
Thank you for your post to the community!
If this is about YouTube's Automatic Subtitles, there's a (non-Apple) video online about that: YouTube Automatic Subtitles Not Working? Try this Unusual Method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcJenOR_TDE
Else:
Am no expert in this area, yet your question deserves some response. Upgrades often bring new features, improvements, different settings, or new ways of working.
If you haven't already: wondering if checking your settings may help:
Apple Support has online articles for accessibility on iPhone using iOS18 (links below):
See how to:
Display subtitles and captions on iPhone - Apple Support
Eg: says:
Turn on subtitles and captions in the Apple TV app
When you play video content in a supported app, you can turn on subtitles and closed captions (if available). iPhone usually shows standard subtitles and captions, but you can also choose special accessible captions—such as subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH)—if available.
.(See the article for how to: Customize the subtitles and captions in supported video apps)
Also how to:
Get live captions of spoken audio on iPhone - Apple Support
Eg: says:
"With Live Captions on iPhone, you can get a real-time transcription of spoken audio. Use Live Captions to more easily follow the audio in any app, such as FaceTime or Podcasts, as well as live conversations around you.
Note: Live Captions is available on iPhone 11 and later when the primary language is set to English (U.S.) or English (Canada). The accuracy of Live Captions may vary and shouldn’t be relied upon in high-risk or emergency situations".
"Set up and customize Live Captions
> Accessibility > Live Captions, then turn on Live Captions.More info. on using Live Captions in the above article: Eg: "With Live Captions turned on, iPhone automatically transcribes the spoken audio in apps—or from dialogue around you."
(See the article for details)
______________________________________________________________________
If needed, more info on: Accessibility features for hearing on iPhone - Apple Support
or
You may want to contact Apple's Accessibility Support Team:
How to contact Apple for accessibility support - Apple Support
or
To provide feedback about an accessibility feature on an Apple product, you can email the Accessibility team: accessibility@apple.com.
All the best :-)
Thank you for your prompt reply, and further explanation of the issues you face.
(Apologies if my former reply was not on target!)
Guess you are aware you can: Set up and use RTT and TTY on iPhone - Apple Support
Eg: "Review the transcript of a Software RTT or TTY call
Your iPhone can capture voice messages and provide auto-answer transcriptions for incoming calls.
on your iPhone.
next to a caller.
in your call history. Tap the call to see its transcript.Note: Continuity features aren’t available for RTT and TTY support. Standard voice call rates apply for both Software RTT/TTY and Hardware TTY calls.
____________________________________________________________________
Re: "Live Captions. This little gem worked flawlessly prior to the iOS 18 update and now it's gibberish coming through on phone calls. Live Captions also worked far better than iOS Subtitles & Captioning and Auto Captions in 3rd party apps like Zoom, YouTube, etc. Since the update it's more or less useless. I think Apple may have reverted to an earlier version of Live Captions in the iOS 18 update. Can you look into this?"
We are all Apple users, like yourself, in the community, so have only the ways of contact with Apple that are available to all.
It is people like yourself who actually rely on using a particular feature who can contribute most to its upkeep and improvement.
Although upgrades are well tested before release, almost no software is "bug-free." (Some of us hold back on upgrading until there have been several updates, others jump in right away and enjoy exploring the new features.)
When Apple receives feedback on an issue from multiple users, on various device-models with various OS versions installed, that contributes to the OS updates that restore, improve, or add to the functionality of that particular issue / feature. Those who work behind-the-scenes likely won't reply, yet all feedback is read, logged, and reaches those who can make changes.
Apple welcomes : Product Feedback - Apple
and makes available:
Apple's Accessibility Support Team:
See: How to contact Apple for accessibility support - Apple Support
or
Apple's Accessibility Support Website (info. / support / contact options etc.)
(NB: You can "Get Support" from the link at the bottom of their website:)
Accessibility Support - Official Apple Support
or
To provide feedback about an accessibility feature on an Apple product, email the Accessibility team: accessibility@apple.com.
I appreciate the response but your answer is bordering on offensive. Please don’t make assumptions about what the disabled need or want.
I’m asking about Live Captions. I have no use for RTT or TTY. These do not allow me to speak directly to the person on the other end.
I want Live Captions on my phone calls to work with 90 to 95% accuracy like they did prior to the iOS 18 update. The accuracy has fallen to 5 to 10% since the update. The functionality, feel and look of Live Captions took a massive step backward.
I created a ticket with Apple and their engineers are looking into it.
brbo:
Apologies for the confusion, I'm talking about iOS 18 Live Captions found in Settings --> Accessibility --> Live Captions. This little gem worked flawlessly prior to the iOS 18 update and now it's gibberish coming through on phone calls. Live Captions also worked far better than iOS Subtitles & Captioning and Auto Captions in 3rd party apps like Zoom, YouTube, etc. Since the update it's more or less useless. I think Apple may have reverted to an earlier version of Live Captions in the iOS 18 update. Can you look into this? Live Captions was the sole reason I purchased my iPhone 14 Pro Max and I am really starting to regret that decision.
Thanks for any help you can provide the deaf and hard of hearing community. This is getting a lot of discussion on the D&HoH forums and the majority of users far prefer Android for captioning phone calls. I have used Apple products almost exclusively since the 80s.
Why do Auto Captions no longer work in ios 18
