How to Use Live Captions and Transcriptions in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams: Bridging Language Barriers

Live Translated Captions break down language barriers in real-time during meetings, translating spoken words into the user's chosen language. Meanwhile, Live Transcription captures every spoken word, providing a written record in near real-time.

Enabling Live Captions

Microsoft Teams interface showing pop-up window for joining a meeting via ID, with input fields for Meeting ID and passcode, and a disabled “Join meeting” button.

Start or join a meeting in Microsoft Teams, then click the ‘Join’ button for a scheduled meeting or start a new one.

Turning on Live Captions

Microsoft Teams meeting interface showing dropdown menu with “Turn on live captions” option highlighted, alongside icons for device settings, recording, gallery view, and other meeting controls.

In the More menu, select 'Turn on live captions'. The captions will appear at the bottom of the screen, visible only to you.

Customizing Live Captions

On Windows or Mac, you can customize the font size, color, and positioning of the captions within the meeting window.

Starting Live Transcription

Microsoft Teams meeting interface with the More menu open, highlighting the “Start Live Transcription” option among other controls like recording, meeting info, and language settings.

Go to the meeting controls, select 'More actions', then choose 'Record and transcribe' followed by 'Start transcription'.

Changing Transcript Language

Transcript settings in Microsoft Teams

Select 'Transcript settings', hover over "Spoken language," and pick a preferred language.

Live Translated Transcription

Microsoft Teams transcript settings interface showing options to set spoken and transcript languages via dropdown menu, with settings gear icon and meeting controls visible.

Toggle on "Show both original and translation" to view both the original and translated transcript side-by-side.

Stopping and Restarting Transcription

  • Select 'More actions' in meeting controls.
  • Choose 'Record and transcribe' and select 'Stop transcription'.

Summary

Microsoft Teams' Live Captions and Transcription features enhance communication by addressing language barriers and aiding individuals with hearing impairments. Whether for global meetings or local webinars, these tools ensure that every voice is heard.