How do I use live transcription in Microsoft Teams?

Tags meeting

During any Teams meeting or group call, you can start a live transcription of participant speech. The text appears alongside the meeting video in real time, including the speaker's name and a time stamp.

Live transcription can make your meeting more inclusive for participants who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, people with different levels of language proficiency, and participants in loud places by giving them another way to follow along.

Notes: 

  • Currently live transcription is available only in English, and only on the installed desktop app.

After the meeting, the saved transcript is available for reference and download in the desktop and web apps.

Note: People who call in to meeting using the phone number provided in the meeting details won't be able to view the transcript.

Start live transcription

  • Select More options More options button  in your meeting controls and then select either Start transcription or Start recording and transcription.

    start transcription button

All participants see a notice that the meeting is being transcribed or recorded and transcribed.

The transcript appears on the right side of your screen. The other meeting participants have the option of viewing it.

Show or hide the live transcript

  • Select More options More options button  and then select either Show transcript or Hide transcript.

Pause live transcription

Any participant can stop and then restart transcription during the meeting.

  • Select More options More options button and then select Stop transcription or Start transcription.

The transcription stops automatically when all participants leave the meeting.

Download the saved transcript

When the meeting is over, the transcript is immediately available in the chat history (or channel conversation, if it was a channel meeting) and in the meeting item on the calendar. Meeting participants (or team members for a channel meeting) can download it as either a .vtt or .docx file.

Note: For channel meetings, people who are added to the channel in the future can access the transcripts of earlier meetings.

From chat history

  • Next to the transcript, select More options More options button  and then a download option.

    meeting transcript download options

From the calendar

  • Double-click the meeting and then select Transcript at the top of the screen.

    download transcript

Make the transcript available to mobile participants

Uploading the transcript to chat makes it available to meeting participants who joined from a mobile device.

  1. Download the transcript to your computer.

  2. In the meeting chat, select Attach paper clip  beneath the compose box and then upload the transcript.

To access the transcript from mobile

  1. Go to the meeting’s chat history.

  2. Tap More at the top of the screen.

  3. Tap Files.

Delete the transcript

The meeting organizer is permitted to delete the transcript. For a channel meeting, the channel owner can also delete it.

  • In the chat history or channel conversation, next to the transcript, select More options More options button  and then select Delete transcript.

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