Enable Zoom Live Transcription

Owned by Laura Reeve, created
Last updated: Mar 02, 2021
3 min read

Live Transcription is only available on version 5.5.0 or higher.

Zoom offers the ability to provide live automatic speech recognition (ASR) transcripts in real time for meetings and webinars. By default, the option is not enabled, but Zoom hosts who would find the feature useful for their participants can enable it through their Zoom account settings.

Once enabled, the feature provides the ability to show in-session ASR transcriptions of all spoken content, based on the session audio. The transcriptions appear during the meeting or webinar in a side panel visible to all participants.

Because this service creates machine-generated transcriptions, their accuracy will not be perfect. Most ASR transcription results in approximately 70-80% accuracy.

If you are in need of a better accommodation, Disability Services may be able to provide more options: ds@seattleu.edu

Enable Live Transcription in Zoom Settings

This feature has been enabled globally across all SU Zoom accounts. The meeting host must activate the feature in the Zoom meeting window for each meeting they want to use it (see instructions below).

Users must be on version 5.5.0 or higher to activate/use this feature.

Hosts may choose to disable this feature by toggling the switch below (under Settings → In Meeting (Advanced).

To Activate Live Transcription in a Zoom Meeting

Once the Zoom meeting begins, the host will need to “Enable Auto-Transcription” for the live transcription service to be active for each meeting.

  1. As the meeting host, click the “CC” Live Transcript button at the bottom of your Zoom meeting. Then click the Enable Auto-Transcription button at the bottom of the menu.

  2. Once activated, the button will turn blue and switch to a “Disable…” option. The live transcription service is now available in your meeting.

  3. The participant will be able to view the subtitles as an overlay on the meeting screen.

    1. Adjust the settings as needed by clicking on the “CC” live transcription button and selecting the Subtitle Settings option (make font bigger or smaller, etc.).

    2. Click to grab and move the subtitles to another part of the screen.

    3. Choose Hide Subtitle if you do not need the subtitles and find them distracting.

  4. View Full Transcript by selecting that option. The full transcript will pop up in a side-panel window in the Zoom meeting, much like the Chat or Participant side-panel.

     

  5. Participants must click the Save Transcript button in order to save the transcript as a text file on their computer before the meeting ends. The Save Transcript button may be clicked at any time, and a text file will capture the transcript up to that point.

 

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