Despite the rumours that Google will eventually merge Google Duo and Meet into a single consumer/ enterprise messaging platform (there are two user groups with a lot in common), it seems Google still has some Duo love left. Today they have tweeted out a minor update, but a huge improvement for accessibility, native captioning for Duo.
In a noisy place? No problem. Captions are now available on Google Duo, so you won’t miss a word of your video and voice messages. https://t.co/jqEvy9Vyn7 pic.twitter.com/gq5Z2ntn5P
— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) August 19, 2020
Before you get too excited, this isn’t live captioning as you would find on a Pixel 4 or 4a, this is server-side captioning of messages sent to you by other Duo users. When active you will see the captions appear in the bottom of the video message.
Google Duo is working on messages transcription pic.twitter.com/kEltrIKULj
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 27, 2020
To activate the feature you will need to go into Message settings in Duo and toggle a new ‘Captions for Messages’ options that explicitly outlines that the audio will be sent to Google for transcription but not retained. The new feature will be rolling out across Android and iOS devices in the near future.
