Caption Phone Services
Enjoy your phone calls with an effortless caption phone experience at no cost if you’re hard-of-hearing or Deaf and need captions to use the phone.
Get started with CaptionCall by Sorenson
Closed Caption Phone Calls for Your Landline and Mobile
Remember when phone calls were fun? It was a way to connect with people you care about, make plans, check things off your to-do list, and get answers quickly…before hearing loss made the phone frustrating.
You can enjoy using your phone again with no-cost phone call captioning. It creates accurate live captions of your phone conversations and voice messages so you can read along on screen and be confident you’re getting every word.
Sorenson offers two options to use our caption phone service:
- CaptionCall by Sorenson for captions on your home phone
- CaptionCall Mobile for real-time mobile captioning on your smartphone or tablet
You can use either — or both — at no cost if you have hearing loss that makes captions necessary to use the phone.
Both CaptionCall and CaptionCall Mobile support English and Spanish call captioning as well as an English or Spanish user interface.
CaptionCall & CaptionCall Mobile Benefits and Features
CaptionCall by Sorenson
CaptionCall is your call captioning solution for your home phone. When you sign up for CaptionCall, we provide our complimentary CaptionCall phone as part of the service. It works like a regular phone, but has a large touchscreen that displays scrolling text of your conversation for clear caption phone calls.
You can get CaptionCall at home through your landline phone service, high-speed internet, or smartphone mobile service.
Trained captioning agents work with advanced voice recognition technology to ensure the accuracy of your call captioning.
You already know how to use it! CaptionCall works just like a regular landline phone except you can use live caption for calls.
You have the option to adjust your CaptionCall phone to your specific hearing needs for frequency amplification and volume.
CaptionCall Mobile
For phone calls on the go, you want our CaptionCall Mobile caption app on your smartphone or tablet. CaptionCall Mobile earns top ratings as a caption app for iPhone and Android devices, and as soon as you try it you’ll know why. The app is streamlined and intuitive, but it runs on award-winning AI to give you lightning fast, accurate captions. See more info about CaptionCall Mobile »
Your call captions on CaptionCall Mobile come only from advanced automatic speech recognition software for complete call privacy.
No one can tell you’re using CaptionCall Mobile. It looks like a typical cell phone call on speakerphone and works with your regular number.
Caption your phone calls wherever you are to connect on the go and follow conversations, even with background noise.
Read captions of both sides of your conversations like a text message thread so call transcripts make more sense.
SilkScroll®
Call captions advance naturally with patented SilkScroll® technology — one of the intuitive features that puts CaptionCall above the rest. Smooth scrolling captions on a large screen help hard-of-hearing users communicate confidently on the phone.
Need Help?
You can sign up for CaptionCall using our form or download CaptionCall Mobile and register directly through the app.
Our support team is here to help you with technical support issues. If you prefer the DIY approach, get started on your own with our CaptionCall user guides and CaptionCall training videos.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have questions we haven’t answered here, check our support page or contact our excellent Customer Care team.No. Telephone captioning is a no-cost to the consumer ADA service, paid from a federally administered fund to help people with hearing loss who need captioning to communicate on the phone.
All captioned call companies receive compensation from the same Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Fund through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). CaptionCall by Sorenson receives compensation from the TRS Fund by the minute for captioned calls.
Yes, you can pair wireless hearing aids with your mobile phone to stream audio, and the CaptionCall Mobile app displays captions for both sides of the conversation.
Yes. Only people with hearing loss who need captions to use the phone effectively may use CaptionCall and CaptionCall Mobile. This isn’t just our policy; it’s the law. The Federal TRS/IP CTS fund supports Sorenson’s call captioning services and only permits Deaf and hard-of-hearing users to register for service.
Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS) is a form of telecommunications relay service (TRS) that enables an individual who can speak, but who has difficulty hearing, to use a phone. They can simultaneously listen to the other person and read captions of what the other person is saying.
As part of the FCC requirements of the IP CTS program, Sorenson must validate our users are actual people and not fictional or fraudulent sign-ups. This is the reason we ask for your registration information.
CaptionCall is part of the federal government’s Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS) program, part of a mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure people with hearing loss have equal access to telephone calls.
The funding for the service comes from fees the FCC collects from telecommunications companies. The FCC uses that funding to reimburse each minute of captioning service Sorenson provides instead of customers paying for it out of pocket. This is why the service is only available to people with hearing loss who need captions to use the phone.
If you have hearing loss and need captioning to communicate over the phone CaptionCall will provide you with a phone at no cost.
As long as you have either a landline phone service, high-speed internet, or a smartphone, we can connect you with a CaptionCall phone. CaptionCall offers two free installation service options: Red Carpet Service installation with in-person installation and hands-on training or self-guided installation with virtual trainer support.
Anyone who qualifies for the CaptionCall service will receive a CaptionCall phone to access their call captioning. To qualify for CaptionCall, you must have hearing loss that necessitates the use of captioned telephone service. You must complete an easy self-certification process and provide other mandatory registration information.
CaptionCall uses the most advanced voice-recognition technology, captioning agents, and a fast transcription service to display written captions of what a caller is saying on a large, easy-to-read screen.
Yes, CaptionCall works with your current home phone number. You can also keep your current provider and plan.
No. CaptionCall works seamlessly with services from your provider, including call waiting, call forwarding, voicemail, and caller ID.
This will depend on the length of captions per call, but don’t worry; we give you enough space for months—even years—worth of calls.
Open the CaptionCall Mobile app and tap Sign In.
Sign in with the email you used to create your account.
If you haven’t set up a password yet, you can do so at the CaptionCall Mobile password reset page.
To reset your password, click here to visit the CaptionCall Mobile password reset page.
You can use the same URL if you haven’t yet created a password for your account.
Note: If you aren’t receiving the password reset email, please check your spam/junk folder. If you still cannot find the password reset email, check your email filter settings and try again.
If your phone does not automatically update the CaptionCall Mobile app, you can manually update CaptionCall Mobile to make sure you have all the latest features.
For iPhones and iPads
- Open the App Store on your device
- Tap on your account information in the top right corner
- Scroll down to Upcoming Updates
- Find the CaptionCall Mobile app and tap Update
For Android Phones
- Open the Play Store on your device
- Tap on your account information in the top right corner
- Go to Manage Apps & Device and then Available Updates
- Scroll to find the CaptionCall Mobile app and tap Upgrade
You have to set up Call Forwarding for CaptionCall Mobile to caption calls coming in to your usual phone number. Here’s how:
- Open the CaptionCall Mobile menu options by tapping on the menu icon
- Tap Call Forwarding
- Tap Enable
- Tap Got it!
- Call the pre-filled activation code
Important Reminder: if you ever decide to uninstall CaptionCall Mobile, disable call forwarding first so incoming calls will resume ringing your native mobile dialer.
This is one of the first things we recommend you do when you start using the app. To set up call forwarding:
- Open the CaptionCall Mobile menu options by tapping on the menu icon.
- Tap Call Forwarding.
- Tap Enable.
- Tap Got it!
- Call the pre-filled activation code.
The app will open whenever you answer an incoming CaptionCall Mobile phone call, but you must unlock your phone to view the captions.
If the incoming calls are going to your built-in phone app rather than the CaptionCall Mobile app, you need to set up Call Forwarding to CaptionCall Mobile.
When you register for a CaptionCall mobile account, you get a unique CaptionCall Mobile phone number for captioned calls. However, you can continue using your usual phone number—for incoming and outgoing calls—by setting up Call Forwarding and My Caller ID.
- Using My Caller ID will display your usual phone number when you make outgoing calls, so your friends and family know it’s you calling.
- Open the CaptionCall Mobile menu options by tapping on the menu icon
- Tap My Caller ID
- Tap I agree
- Tap Add Feature!
- Tap Done
When you register for your CaptionCall Mobile account, we automatically assign a CaptionCall Mobile number with your specified area code, and we cannot change it to something specific.
However, you can set up Call Forwarding and My Caller ID to keep using your regular phone number for all calls.
You can change your CaptionCall Mobile voicemail from the voicemail menu.
To record a personal voicemail greeting:
- Press and hold the 1 on the CaptionCall Mobile dialer (or dial *97)
- Press * to reach the voicemail menu
- Press 4 to record your personal mailbox greeting
To reset your voicemail greeting:
- Press and hold the 1 on the CaptionCall Mobile dialer (or dial *97)
- Press * to reach the voicemail menu
- Press 9 to select a default mailbox greeting
When your Bluetooth device is connected to your phone, the CaptionCall Mobile app will automatically detect it.
During a call, the Bluetooth icon should appear in the call menu when a Bluetooth device is connected to your phone. Just tap the icon to toggle between speakerphone, handset, or Bluetooth mode.
Tip: If you don’t see the Bluetooth icon, check your phone settings to make sure Bluetooth is enabled and connected to your Bluetooth device.
You can delete your call history in the History tab of the CaptionCall Mobile app.
Tap Edit at the top right of the screen.
Select the calls you wish to delete or tap Select All at the top right.
Once you have the calls selected, tap Delete at the bottom of the screen. The calls will then be deleted from your call history.
To cancel the operation, tap Cancel at the top left of the screen.
You can change the font size of your captions in the settings of the CaptionCall Mobile app.
For iPhones:
- Open the menu options by tapping on the menu icon
- Tap Settings
- Use the slider to adjust the caption size
For Android phones:
- Open the menu options by tapping on the menu icon
- Tap Settings
- Tap Accessibility
- Use the slider to adjust the caption size
You can also adjust the caption size during a call in the call menu
By default, CaptionCall Mobile captions both sides of the conversation. But if you want to toggle off your captions for calls, you can do that in the settings.
For iPhones:
- Open the menu options by tapping on the menu icon
- Tap Settings
- Toggle Show my captions off
For Android phones:
- Open the menu options by tapping on the menu icon
- Tap Settings
- Tap Call
- Toggle Show my captions off
All call transcripts save to your history by default. You can find the transcript of a previous conversation by going to the History tab in the CaptionCall Mobile app and tapping on the call you want to view.
- Go to the History tab of the CaptionCall Mobile app
- Tap on the call with the desired transcript
- Tap Share
- Choose how you want to export the transcript
When you make a call, there will be a microphone icon in the call menu. Tap the microphone icon to mute or unmute yourself.
When you are MUTED, the microphone icon will be highlighted.
When you are UNMUTED, the microphone icon will be grey like this
Tip: If the other party can’t hear you, check your microphone permissions to ensure CaptionCall Mobile is allowed to use your microphone.
When you make a call, there will be a speaker icon in the call menu. Tap the speaker icon to switch to speakerphone mode.
When the speakerphone is ON, the speaker icon will be highlighted.
Tip: Your phone volume settings control the speakerphone volume. Use your device’s volume controls to adjust the volume if it is too loud or too soft.
- While in a call, tap on the Settings icon in the call menu
- Tap on the Phone+ icon [This will place the current call on hold]
- Enter the number of the person you wish to call then tap the green Call icon to begin calling them
- Once you are in a call with the 3rd person, tap on the Settings icon in the call menu
- Tap on the Conference icon to merge calls
Enhanced 911 (E911) is a system that automatically provides your location to 911 dispatchers in case of an emergency.
Sorenson requires CaptionCall Mobile users to have register information that complies with US 911 regulations. Please be sure your correct address is in your CaptionCall Mobile app:
- Open the menu options by tapping the menu icon
- Tap E911 Location
- Ensure your address is correct
Download CaptionCall Mobile app
You can register and self-certify from within the mobile app and make your first call within minutes
