Live Transcription and Captioning

COMING SOON! The Live Transcription feature described below will be available with the rollout of the New Teams experience to Tufts University, which is scheduled for January 17, 2024! The Live Caption feature is already available.

Overview

Transcription and captioning are two similar, but separate, features in Microsoft Teams. When transcription is enabled, it provides a complete record of everything that is being said in the meeting. This transcript is available to view in a Transcript panel during the meeting, and also available to view and download after the meeting ends. When captioning is enabled, it provides a more temporary record of what is being said at a given moment. This caption is by default displayed at the bottom of the meeting window. Captions are not recorded and are not available to view and download after a meeting.

Live transcription is available for Microsoft Teams virtual meetings that are scheduled in advance (e.g. via Teams or Outlook) as well as in instant meetings that are launched within team channels. At this time, live transcription is NOT available for private calls (e.g. video calls launched from a private chat window). Live captioning is available for both meetings and private calls.

As described below, live transcription is automatically enabled when recording a meeting. However, you do have the ability to start/stop just transcription separately.

  1. In the meeting, find the top toolbar and click on More, then Record and transcribe, and select one of the available options:
    • Start recording – This will start BOTH recording AND transcription.
    • Start transcription – This will start ONLY transcription.The Record and transcribe submenu, with options to start recording or transcription.
  2. Depending on what you selected, notifications will appear on the screen to indicate that recording/transcription is happening. If a transcript is being generated, a Transcript panel will appear on the right.Notifications within a Teams virtual meeting window that indicate recording and transcription are in progress. Notifications appear as popups as well as within the chat window.
  3. Once recording/transcription have begun, return to the Record and transcribe submenu (More > Record and transcribe) to manage things further. Depending on what is already happening, you may see the following options:
    • Stop recording – This will stop BOTH recording AND transcription. 
    • Stop transcription – This will stop ONLY transcription
    • Show/Hide transcript – This will open and close the Transcript panel.The Record and transcribe submenu, with options to stop recording, stope transcription, and show/hide transcript panel.
  4. If you are stopping a recording, you will be asked to confirm. To do so, click Stop.Confirmation window that appears when you decide to stop recording. You must click Stop to confirm.
  5. Depending on what you selected, notifications will appear on the screen to indicate that recording/transcription has stopped.Notifications that appear when you stop recording and/or transcription.

If you generated the transcript as a part of a personal (non-team) meeting, you can access the transcript and/or recording files from the Teams chat feature.

If you generated the transcript as a part of a team meeting, you can access the transcript and/or recording files from the appropriate team channel.

Accessing Transcript and/or Recording Files for a Personal (Non-Team) Meeting

  1. After the meeting has ended, open the Teams application and select Chat in the left-hand toolbar.
  2. In the Chat panel, find the meeting and select it.Teams application window. With a chat selected in the Chat panel.
  3. Once the meeting chat opens, you can view and download transcript and/or recording files from here.A display of the chat window, with transcript and recording files called out.

Accessing Transcript and/or Recording Files for a Team Meeting

  1. Open the Teams application and select Teams in the left-hand toolbar.
  2. Navigate to the Team channel that the meeting belongs to.
  3. Click into the Post tab.
  4. Find the meeting and click on See details.Posts tab of a team channel. Instant and scheduled virtual meetings will be listed here. Click on See details to view associated transcript and/or recording files.
  5. A page will load with the transcript and/or recording files for the team meeting.The details window for a team meeting, with transcript and recording files called out.

Note: Captions are not recorded and other participants are not notified when you use them.

  1. In the meeting, find the top toolbar and click on More, then Language and speech, and select Turn on live captions.The Language and speech submenu, with the Turn on live captions option called out.
  2. Select the language that people are speaking in the meeting and click Confirm.Selecting a language for live captioning and confirming.
  3. A live caption panel will appear toward the bottom of the meeting window. In this panel, captions will be displayed on a rolling basis, with other captions gradually disappearing.The live caption window in a Teams meeting.
  4. To adjust caption settings, click on the Settings icon (Caption settings gear icon) in the caption panel. A Caption Settings panel will open on the right.The Caption Settings panel, with options for adjusting caption language, appearance, and location.
  5. To stop live captions, find the top toolbar and click on More, then Language and speech, and select Turn off live captions.The Language and speech submenu, with the option to Turn off live captions called out.