During a Microsoft Teams meeting, voice or video call, participants can turn on built-in live captions from the meeting controls. Microsoft’s Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology service will detect what is said, who said it, and present real-time captions below the meeting window.
None of the participants can tell if you are using live captions. Also, Microsoft ASR involves no human intervention, and no one can access the meeting audio or any other meeting information at any time. Teams does not save captions. If you would like a transcript of the meeting, turn on transcription. You will be able to download the transcript after the meeting.
Fun fact: Obscenities are obscured by ******* asterisks.
Thanks to an awesome Teams update in September 2022, live captions are also helpful when:
Adding live captions allows for more inclusive, productive, and engaging meetings.
Using Microsoft Speech Translation technology powered by Azure Cognitive Services, meeting participants can now use live captions to translate voice to subtitles using a language of their choice in a Teams meeting. Live translation for captions is ideal in meetings with multi-lingual participants, as it supports one spoken language and multiple subtitle languages.
Each month, we provide custom webinars to a large organization with locations in several countries across the Americas. With this excellent new feature, I can deliver the webinars in English, share my screen, and attendees can change their own captions to Spanish, Japanese, or any of the languages available that they are most comfortable with! That way, we can inclusively participate in the monthly webinars, no matter what the spoken language is. I know, it is exciting!
We also provide a version of the same monthly webinar topic, but with a Spanish-speaking presenter (I took a French class!). With this feature, I attend as a moderator! If there are questions that are asked during the webinar using chat, I use the text translation feature to communicate my answer. Otherwise, when opened up for Q&A and attendees speak, we can read the translated captions and clearly communicate.
By default, live captions are displayed in the language that’s spoken during the meeting. Live translated captions allow users to see captions translated into the language they’re most comfortable with.
It really is that easy! You are just a few clicks away from live translated captions in Microsoft Teams. Give it a try, see if you like it, and decide if this preview feature is something that you would like to use all the time. As Teams Premium rolls out, we will learn more information about that type of license. For now? Check it out!
To ensure that your live captions are as accurate as possible and the Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology service does not get creative (yielding inaccurate, yet entertaining results), there are a few best practices:
Yes, just don't turn on live captions…or your admin can also disable the feature altogether. More details are released all the time and if you have concerns about the data processing, location, and permanent deletion, I encourage you to research Azure Cognitive Services.
When meetings include live captions or transcription, Teams uses speaker attribution. You can hide your name in live captions, live transcription, and the saved transcription (available after the meeting).
Do this before the meeting where you want to speak anonymously:
Important Microsoft note: Microsoft reserves the right to restrict transcription and translation services, with reasonable notice, in order to limit excessive use and/or fraud, and to maintain service performance. These services include live captions, subtitles, and transcription functionality available across Microsoft 365 products like Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint, Stream, and others.
Live translation for captions is temporarily available as a preview for all Microsoft Teams customers (GA: September 2022). After the preview period, to use the live translation for captions, meeting organizers will need the Teams Premium offering.
English (US), English (Canada), English (India), English (UK), English (Australia), English (New Zealand), Arabic (Arab Emirates) (Preview), Arabic (Saudi Arabia) (Preview), Chinese (Simplified China), Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR), Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) (Preview), Czech (Czechia) (Preview), Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Belgium) (Preview), Dutch (Netherlands), French (Canada), French (France), Finnish (Finland) (Preview), German (Germany), Greek (Greece) (Preview), Hebrew (Israel) (Preview), Hindi (India), Hungarian (Hungary) (Preview), Italian (Italy), Japanese (Japan), Korean (Korea) (Preview), Norwegian (Norway), Polish (Poland) (Preview), Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal) (Preview), Romanian (Romania) (Preview), Russian (Russia) (Preview), Slovak (Slovakia) (Preview), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish (Sweden), Thai (Thailand) (Preview), Turkish (Turkey) (Preview), Ukrainian (Ukraine) (Preview), Vietnamese (Vietnam) (Preview)
Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional (Preview), Czech, Danish, Dutch (Preview), English, Finnish, French, French (Canada), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian (Preview), Italian, Japanese (Preview), Korean (Preview), Norwegian, Polish (Preview), Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian (Preview), Russian (Preview), Slovak (Preview), Spanish, Swedish, Thai (Preview), Turkish (Preview), Ukrainian, Vietnamese (Preview)
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For the past 20 years, KnowledgeWave has been helping companies deploy and adopt the latest business software. We stay up to date with the most recent software features and are constantly adding additional training to our online learning library, the KnowledgeWave Learning Site.
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