Live transcription is a service which uses ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) technology to present real-time machine-generated captions within meetings. After turning these options on all spoken content in a meeting will have an accompanying text version. In Zoom this will be available as captions as well as a transcript sidebar including identification of each speaker. Live transcription is available to Whiting School of Engineering faculty, staff, and students in both Zoom and Teams meetings.
Note: Automated transcription services should be considered a helpful addition to a meeting and are not a substitute for human transcription as they are often in the 70-80% accuracy range. Please contact your school/program’s disability services office if you have an accommodation need.
Zoom Live Transcription
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In your meeting, you will see a Transcript button in the Zoom toolbar. Click the Transcript button to see a live transcription of audio from the meeting. If you don't see the Transcript button, you may need to click More first to see additional options in the toolbar.
You'll now see a high-quality live transcript of the meeting audio. You can also pop the transcript out into a new window, using the "pop-out" button. There is also an option to save the transcript.
Note: To enable live transcription in a meeting hosted from an instructional studio, see our article Live Transcription with Zoom Rooms.
Teams Live Transcription:
Start a meeting and go to your meeting controls and select the More button. Hover over Record and transcribe and click Start transcription.
Hover over Record and transcribe and click Start transcription.
That's it! Enjoy high-quality live transcriptions in your Teams meeting.
Please note that Teams does not save captions.
Powerpoint Live Transcription:
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With your slide deck open, navigate to the Slide Show ribbon tab. Click Always Use Subtitles to enable live transcription.
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By clicking on the chevron icon on the Always Use Subtitles button, you can specify the Spoken Language, Subtitle Language (to offer translated transcription), and the location where the subtitles will appear. Audio Settings will allow you to review which microphone is selected for use.
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Play your presentation and begin speaking. Live transcription will appear according to the specifications you made in the subtitle settings.
Note: This feature is available in the desktop PowerPoint application for both Windows and macOS (with Microsoft 365) and is also supported when using PowerPoint for the web in modern browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome (version 34 or newer), or Mozilla Firefox (version 25 or newer).
To use the feature on Windows desktop, you need Windows 10 or later and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 version 16.0.11601.20178 or later. On Mac, you need PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac version 16.22.127.0 or higher.
Because the caption rely on cloud-based speech recognition services, a stable internet connection is required when using PowerPoint for the web or when subtitles are translated into another language.
For more information about recording and generating captions for a PowerPoint presentation, please see our article: Recording and Captioning PowerPoint Presentations.
Best Practices
To make sure your live transcript is as accurate as possible follow the suggested tips below.
- Conduct your meetings in a location free from background noise.
- Speak clearly into your microphone.
- Make sure you are using the highest-quality equipment available to you.