Overview
Live captioning within Zoom Meetings and Webinars come in two options:
- Subtitles: these are captions that appear at the bottom of the Zoom window
- Live Transcript: full meeting audio converted to transcripts in real time. These are time stamped and tagged with who was speaking.
Note: Only the host of a meeting can initiate live transcriptions. If you are scheduling a meeting that you will not be present for, you should designate an "alternative host" when creating the meeting. The "alternative host" will become the "host" if you are not in the meeting and be able to initiate live captioning. Instructions on "alternative hosts" can be found at Can I add someone else to host my Zoom meeting?
Note: these automated captioning solutions, while generally providing accurate representations of what is being said, do not meet accommodation requirements, and are not a substitute for human-generated captioning.
Client requirements:
The Live transcription feature has been confirmed to work with the following Zoom clients:
- Zoom Desktop Applications for Windows and macOS
- Zoom Mobile Applications for iOS and Android
- Note: Live transcriptions cannot be accessed using the web client (browser) regardless of type.
Enabling Auto-Transcription
Using the Zoom Desktop application
- Click the Live Transcript button in the bottom of your Zoom meeting window
- Select Enable Auto-Transcription

Note: to disable auto-transcription, just click the Live Transcript button once again, and select, Disable Auto-Transcription.

Using the Zoom mobile application
Note: The following steps and images are for iOS.
- In the Zoom meeting click the More button located in the in meeting control bar.
- Select, Enable Live Transcripts

In Meeting Controls
Displaying Live Transcripts in the Zoom Desktop App
- As the Host: Click the ^ (caret) key to the upper right of the Live Transcript button within your Zoom meeting.
- As a Participant: Click the Live Transcript button within your Zoom meeting.
- Select View Full Transcript

- The meeting's audio will be transcribed into a window in the far right of the Zoom desktop app
Saving the Full Transcript
- The meeting's transcript can be save as a .txt file.
- At the bottom of the full transcription window, select Save Transcript.

Note: Users will only be able to Save Transcript if the host has enabled Save Captions within their uic.zoom.us settings page.
Displaying Subtitles in the Zoom Desktop App
- As the Host: Click the ^ (caret) key to the upper right of the Live Transcript button within your Zoom meeting.
- As a Participant: Click the Live Transcript button within your Zoom meeting.
- Select Show Subtitle

- Subtitles will be displayed at the bottom of your Zoom meeting client.
- Note: you can hide the subtitles at any time by clicking the ^ (carat) key, and selecting Hide Subtitle

Editing Subtitle settings in the Zoom Desktop App
To change the subtitles font size please follow the steps below.
- As the Host: Click the ^ (caret) key to the upper right of the Live Transcript button within your Zoom meeting.
- As a Participant: Click the Live Transcript button within your Zoom meeting.
- Select, Subtitle Settings

- Use the slider at the top of the Accessibility tab in the Zoom application setting's window to adjust the font size of the subtitles.

Viewing the full Transcript in the Mobile App
- In the Zoom meeting click the More button located in the in meeting control bar.
- Select View Full Transcript

- A new window will open displaying the full tagged and time stamped transcription for the meeting.
