How to quickly turn on Live Captioning for iPhone phone calls

Question

How to quickly turn on Live Captioning for iPhone phone calls

Hi. I need to use live captioning to transcribe phone calls but I don’t want it on all the time. How do I turn on live captioning quickly when I answer a phone call? Can I add it to the ‘more’ button or make a short cut? It takes too long to go into settings > accessibility > live captioning > on while I’ve got someone on hold on the phone. I’m deaf and can’t hear them otherwise.

if I turn on live captioning all the time it sits open on the phone constantly which is annoying.

I have an iPhone 17e and when I bought it the sales rep was all ‘yes, yes, yes, this can be done’ but I don’t think he realised I need it quickly when I answer a call.

Thanks

shirley

iPhone 17e, iOS 26

Posted on Sep 15, 2026 11:28 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Zurarczurx

Level 5

6,708 points

Sep 24, 2026 12:26 AM in response to ShirleyViolet

Two options

Open Settings, search for "Tap" and hit the "back tap" setting. Choose either double or triple tap depending what you want and scroll down to tick "Live Captions" . Now, when you want to turn them on you double or triple tap the back of the device. TBH tapping is not brilliant and sometimes doesn't work if the phone is busy doing something else. I've not tested it during phone calls. It also takes practice - tap sharply just below the camers.

Set up a shortcut. Open Shorcuts, search for Caption and you'll get a shortcut which you can modify to turn live captions on or off. You could create two shortcuts, one for on and one for off, and then add them either to your home screen or to the control centre.

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