Feature
Bilingual subtitles that float over the video
Keep translated captions in a floating panel over the page while TanLens listens to a tab, microphone or file, with source and target lines.
TanLens draws its captions in a floating panel over the page you are watching. The panel shows the original line and the translation, so you can follow a video without moving your eyes to a separate window. It belongs to the TanLens browser app and the Chrome or Edge extension; it is not a system-wide overlay that covers native desktop applications.
01A caption layer over the page
Start a tab session from the extension and the caption panel appears over the player. You can move it away from the video controls and keep the panel small when the translation is only there to help you follow along. Each line is paired with its source text, so a mistranslated idiom is easy to spot rather than hidden. The panel is designed for a browser tab, which is where the audio comes from in the first place.
02Where floating captions stop
Because the panel lives in the browser, it does not follow you into a native Zoom, Teams or media player window. When you need captions on a different screen, a broadcast room is the better fit: it opens as a web page on another device and carries caption text only. Fullscreen video can also hide the panel, depending on the browser; the broadcast view on a second screen avoids that problem. DRM-protected sites may block tab capture entirely, so test each site before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
Related pages
Put words on the screen tonight
Twenty free minutes a month, no card, no meeting bot. Start with your microphone, then add the extension for tab audio.