Live Captions / Ava alternative for Windows
Ava alternative for Windows: captions for any sound on your PC
Updated October 27, 2026
Ava is primarily a mobile app, built around captioning in-person group conversations on phones. If your calls, videos and lectures happen on a Windows computer, Live Captions & Transcribe is a closer fit: it captions any sound playing on a Windows 10 or 11 PC (or the microphone) in a window on top of other apps, shows each speaker in their own color and saves a transcript you can export to TXT or SRT.
These two apps are built for different situations, and plenty of people could use both. Below is an honest look at where each one makes sense, so you can pick by how you actually spend your day rather than by a feature list.
Ava and Live Captions & Transcribe at a glance
| Ava | Live Captions & Transcribe | |
|---|---|---|
| Main device | Phone (primarily a mobile app) | Windows 10 and 11 PC (x64) |
| Built for | In-person and group conversations | Anything that plays on the PC: calls, videos, lectures; or the microphone |
| Pricing model | Subscription-based | Free to try without account or card, then minute packs or a subscription |
We only list what we can state with confidence about Ava. Its features and plans change, so check Ava's own website for the current details.
When Ava is the better choice
- Face-to-face conversations away from a computer. A dinner, a family gathering, a meeting room where everyone has a phone: a mobile app built for group conversations is made for this.
- You want captions in your pocket. If the phone is the device you always have with you, a phone app wins on convenience.
- Your group already uses Ava. If colleagues or family are set up on it, it makes sense to stay where they are.
When Live Captions & Transcribe fits better
Your conversations happen on the computer
Live Captions & Transcribe listens to the sound your PC plays. That covers calls in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp desktop, Discord and Telegram desktop, and also YouTube, Netflix, podcasts and recorded lectures. You don't need a separate setup for each app: if you can hear it on the PC, you can read it. Captions appear about one second after the words are spoken, in a window that stays on top.
You use Windows 10
The app runs on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 (x64). The built-in Live Captions in Windows exists only on Windows 11, version 22H2 and later, so on an older PC a separate app is the way to get captions for everything. More on that in our guide to live captions on Windows 10.
You want to keep the text
Every session is saved in a history on your PC. Search it by word, rename "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2" to real names, copy a quote, or export the whole thing to TXT for notes or SRT for subtitles. This is handy for lectures, long meetings and interviews you'll come back to.
You need to follow several speakers
Each speaker gets their own color and starts on a new line, so a fast discussion doesn't turn into one block of text.
You want big, clear text on a big screen
Text goes up to 64 pt, with light, dark and high-contrast styles. Turn on click-through and your mouse clicks pass through the caption window to the app underneath. Large text like this also helps people who are hard of hearing follow family video calls.
How to set up Live Captions & Transcribe
- Install it. Open the Live Captions & Transcribe page in the Microsoft Store and click Get. No account or card is needed to try it.
- Choose what to listen to. Computer sound for calls, videos and lectures; the microphone for people speaking in the room.
- Press Start. The language is detected automatically from 60 speech languages.
- Adjust the window. Move it next to the call or under the video, set the text size and style, and turn on click-through if you like.
- Review afterwards. Open the history to search, rename speakers, copy, or export to TXT or SRT.
Good to know. The app needs an internet connection. While captions are running, the audio is sent to a cloud speech recognition service; it is not recorded, and transcripts stay on your PC. Captions are in the spoken language only, with no translation. If you need translation, use the sister app Live Subtitles.
Can you use both?
Yes, and for some people that's the most practical answer: a phone app for conversations around the table, and Live Captions & Transcribe on the computer for calls, videos and lectures, with a transcript you can keep.
Try Live Captions & Transcribe free on Windows 10 or 11. No account, no card.
Get it from Microsoft Store