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Safari users · Browser-agnostic

OBS Caption Tool That Works on Safari

Mac streamer? Tried Caption.Ninja and Web Captioner only to find they need Chrome? StreamTranslate works in Safari (and Chrome, Firefox, Edge) because speech recognition runs server-side, not in the browser.

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No credit card. 6-hour free trial. Works on any browser.

TL;DR
Most free OBS caption tools rely on the Chrome Web Speech API, so they do not work in Safari or Firefox. StreamTranslate runs speech recognition server-side via Deepgram, so it works in every browser. 6-hour free trial, no card.

Why most free caption tools do not work on Safari

The standard free OBS caption tools (Caption.Ninja, the now-shutdown Web Captioner, Zip Captions) all use Chrome's built-in Web Speech API for free speech recognition. That API only works in Chrome, Edge, and Brave (all Chromium browsers).

Safari does not implement the Web Speech API. Apple's WebKit does not provide free server-side speech recognition. So tools built on the browser's built-in SpeechRecognition object simply do not work on Mac Safari.

This locks out a significant share of streamers — Mac users who prefer Safari for battery life and tighter system integration.

How StreamTranslate works on Safari

StreamTranslate does not depend on the browser's speech recognition. We capture mic audio via MediaRecorder (which Safari fully supports) and stream it via WebSocket to our servers. Deepgram Nova-3 runs the speech-to-text on our side. We send back the transcription + translation.

This means Safari (and Firefox, Chrome, Edge) all work identically. No "Chrome required" lock-in.

Setup on Safari

  1. Open streamtranslate.live/control in Safari.
  2. Grant microphone permission when prompted.
  3. Pick spoken language + target language.
  4. Copy the generated OBS browser source URL.
  5. In OBS (Mac): Sources → + → Browser → paste URL → 1920x1080. Go live.

Same workflow as Chrome users. No browser-specific configuration.

Bonus: Firefox works too

Firefox has the same Web Speech API gap as Safari — tools relying on browser-native speech recognition do not work there. StreamTranslate works in Firefox identically to Chrome/Safari for the same reason: server-side speech recognition.

Frequently asked questions

Does Caption.Ninja work on Safari?
No. Caption.Ninja depends on the Web Speech API which Safari does not implement for free speech recognition.
Does StreamTranslate require any Safari-specific setup?
No. Same workflow as Chrome — open the control page, grant mic permission, generate OBS URL, paste in OBS.
Does it work on Mobile Safari (iPad/iPhone)?
For viewing captions on the stream, yes. For broadcasting / capturing audio, mobile streaming is typically done via OBS Mobile or Streamlabs Mobile — our overlay works as a browser source in those.
What about Firefox?
Works in Firefox identically. Server-side speech recognition does not depend on any browser-specific API beyond MediaRecorder (which Firefox supports).

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