How To Enable Live Transcription On Zoom: Quick guide

Do you know why Zoom's live transcription is a fantastic tool?

With live transcription of your Zoom meetings, all spoken content will be recorded, and your attention will be 100% on the conversation.

Read this post and learn what Zoom live transcription is all about, the requirements, how to activate it, all its advantages and a better alternative to live transcription of your Zoom recordings. 

Let's get started.

Requirements for using Zoom call live transcription

In order to use the Live Zoom Transcription tool, you need to:

• The option to Record in the Cloud must be enabled in the account.
• Be an owner or administrator of the account in order to enable or disable it at the account or group level.
• To use Zoom live transcription, you need Windows or macOS versions 5.11.9 or higher.
• Same versions of Zoom for iOS or Android

How to enable live transcription in the desktop version of Zoom

It is very easy to activate live call transcription; here are the steps:

• You log in to the Zoom desktop client.
• Click on your profile picture or the initials of your name; they are located at the top right of the screen.
• Click on "Settings".

• In the "Settings" window, click on "Accessibility".

• And select "Closed Captioning Is Available".

How to enable Zoom live transcription on its web?

1. You must go to Settings>In Meeting (Advanced).

2. Enable "Automated captions", "Full transcript", and "Save Captions".

You can even select that only the following users can record the subtitles of the meeting.

And that's all. The option to generate the subtitles and to get the full transcript is already enabled.

Let's see how to activate it in the Zoom App.

How to turn on live transcription during a call?

1. Open the meeting and click on "Show Captions".

2. Select the speaking language.

3. Live transcript ON

You will see a sign at the bottom that says live transcription is enabled.

4. As you can see, it is already starting to display live subtitles.

5. Who can see this transcript?

You will see information on who can read the full transcript and live captions there.

6. How to see the full transcript?

You must click on the arrow in "Hide Captions" and select "View full Transcript".

7. Here it is! As you can see, I have tried several times, and the transcription is not quite right.

You can "Save Transcript" doing click on that button.

And that's all.

Enable Zoom automatic transcription on mobile.

You require Android or iOS with versions 5.11.9 or higher to use automatic Zoom transcription on mobile.

Activating transcription is extremely easy:

• Log in to the Zoom mobile application.
• In the lower right corner, click "CC" (Show Captions)
• Select the language, and that's all.

The exact process than on the desktop.

Enable or disable audio transcription for Zoom cloud recordings

Before telling you how to do it, we briefly describe how to activate audio transcription, which consists of automatically transcribing any meeting or seminar audio you record in the Zoom cloud.

Once the transcript is processed, it appears as a VTT file, separated from the recorded meeting list.

You have the option to display the transcript text within the video itself, much like a closed captioning screen.

The transcript is divided into sections, and each section has a corresponding timestamp to identify at which point in the recording the content was recorded.

Additionally, there is the option to edit the text to increase the precision of some words and add capital letters and punctuation marks.

Here is how to enable audio transcriptions in the Cloud.

For all account users:

1. You log in as an administrator on the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click on "Settings".
3. Click on "Recording".
4. Look for the "Cloud Recording" setting and ensure it is enabled. If it is disabled, click the switch to enable it; if a verification dialogue box appears, click "Enable" to verify the change.
   
5. You will see the "Advanced cloud recording settings" section; select the check box next to "Create audio transcription" to enable it, and click "Save" to confirm the change. If you do not see this setting, you need to verify that the prerequisites are met.
6. You have the option of the lock icon and click "Close" to prevent account users from changing these settings.

For a group of users:

1. You log in as an administrator on the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click "User administration" and then "Groups".
3. Click on the appropriate group name in the list.
4. Now follow steps 3, 4, 5 and 6 above.

For your use:

1. Log in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click on "Settings".
3. Continue with steps 3, 4, 5 and 6. If any account-level blockages arise, you need to contact your Zoom administrator.

FAQs about live transcription in Zoom

Below is a selection of the most frequently asked questions.

Advantages of using Zoom live transcription in calls

• Everyone's attention to the content of conversations and getting involved and participating because no one takes over note-taking anymore.
• It provides accurate information records and can be easily edited, saved and organized.
• If you want to search for specific content, it's quick and easy.
• It provides accessibility to hearing-impaired participants and non-native speakers.
• It is especially useful in noisy areas without access to clear audio or in shared workspaces because it avoids disturbing others.

Disadvantages of live Zoom transcription

• Poor audio quality will affect the accuracy of the transcripts.
• Live transcription is available in a few languages, but except for 3 or 4, the rest are in the beta phase so far.

These disadvantages do not exist for ScriptMe, which features Zoom's automatic transcription recording service.

Just upload your files and you will have accurate and fast transcriptions in over 30 languages, and translations in over 100.

In addition, with ScriptMe you will be able to edit the transcription and correct all the errors that the live transcription will present.

You can export it in the format you want or add the subtitles correctly to your recording.

Who can activate them at the meeting?

Only meeting hosts can enable live transcription. Participants will have access once the host has enabled them; it is up to the participants to use the access or not.

Where is the transcript saved?

The Zoom transcript is saved locally by clicking on the save transcript option, done before the meeting ends. It can be sent to anyone or used for any purpose.

The host can allow participants to save files as well.

In a nutshell

Zoom transcription is a tool with many advantages. However, from our experience, for the proper functioning of the tool, it is essential to speak slowly and clearly.

In terms of audio quality, it is also very important to have an external microphone; it will give better audio quality than the computer's internal microphone.

And it is necessary to be aware of allowing a few seconds to elapse to identify a new speaker; making this pause allows the active tracking of the speaker to send a clear signal to the live transcript.

Keeping these aspects in mind will ensure Zoom transcripts or Zoom audio recordings, which will provide you with useful records of information and documentation.