Overview
Learn how to enable live captioning (real-time subtitles) for your meetings in Microsoft Teams.
Information
Live Captions vs Closed Captions
Live Captions are real-time subtitles generated during your meeting. This allows anyone with a different proficiency level of the language, trouble with their hearing, or even just someone in a loud area to have another way to follow along while the meeting is happening.
Closed captioning within Microsoft Teams, in this case, is used to describe the subtitles generated after the recorded meeting is complete and this transcript can be edited to adjust accuracy; live captions cannot be edited.
Turning on Live Captions
Select either the Teams classic or Microsoft Teams (work or school) tab based on which version of Teams you're using.
To utilize live captions, you must be in your meeting.
- Go to your meeting controls bar, located at the top of your screen.
- Select the More button (represented by "...")
- Select Language and Speech.
- Select Turn on live captions.
- If turning off live captions instead, this option will say Turn off live captions
These instructions are the same for mobile and desktop users.
Change the language of your captions
- To the right of the captions, select Settings (represented by "...")
- Select Spoken Language.
- Select the language being spoken in your meeting. This is the language of the captions and the meeting transcript.
Please Note: Make sure the language you select is the language that everyone is speaking in the meeting. Changing the spoken language setting affects everyone in the meeting as the captions and transcript language will change for all participants.
Customize captions
If you're using the desktop app on Windows or Mac, you can customize the font size and color, increase the number of lines displayed, and change the positioning of the captions in the meeting window.
- To the right of the captions, select Settings.
- Select Caption settings.
- You can then choose from language and style settings.
To utilize live captions, you must be in your meeting.
- Go to your meeting controls bar, located at the top of your screen.
- Select the More button (represented by "...")
- Select Language and Speech.
- Select Turn on live captions.
- If turning off live captions instead, this option will say Turn off live captions
- You will be prompted to select the spoken language. English (US) is the default setting. Select the spoken language from the drop-down menu if it is other than English (US).
These instructions are the same for mobile and desktop users.
Please Note: Make sure the language you select is the language that everyone is speaking in the meeting. Changing the spoken language setting affects everyone in the meeting as the captions and transcript language will change for all participants.
Customize captions
If you're using the desktop app on Windows or Mac, you can customize the font size and color, increase the number of lines displayed, and change the positioning of the captions in the meeting window.
- To the right of the captions, select Settings.
- Select Caption settings.
- You can then choose from language and style settings.
To utilize live captions, you must be in your meeting.
- Go to your meeting controls bar, located at the top of your screen.
- Select the More button (represented by "...")
- Select Language and Speech.
- Select Turn on live captions.
- If turning off live captions instead, this option will say Turn off live captions
- A pop-up window will appear and prompt you to select the Spoken Language spoken in the meeting. This is the language of the captions and the meeting transcript.
Please Note: Make sure the language you select is the language that everyone is speaking in the meeting. Changing the spoken language setting affects everyone in the meeting as the captions and transcript language will change for all participants.
These instructions are the same for mobile and desktop users.
Customize captions
If you're using the desktop app on Windows or Mac, you can customize the font size and color, increase the number of lines displayed, and change the positioning of the captions in the meeting window.
- To the right of the captions, select Settings.
- Select Caption settings.
- You can then choose from language and style settings.
FAQ
I'm on a call and don't see this feature, what's going on?
The Live Captions feature is only available for Teams Meetings at this time and is not an option to turn on during a standard Teams Call.
Do I need to turn on this feature to have closed captioning on for my meeting recording?
No, there is no need to turn on this feature to get closed captioning for your meeting recording. Teams will generate a transcript for closed captions for your recorded meeting, whether this feature was enabled or not during the meeting itself.
I have it on, but it's getting words wrong. How do I fix this?
There are a few options to try to improve the accuracy of the live captions:
- Speak clearly and slowly.
- Try to speak directly into the microphone. Avoid being too far away from your microphone as can affect accuracy.
- Reduce your background noise as much as possible.
- Try to only have one person in the meeting speak at once.
- If using a built-in microphone for a laptop: consider looking at a separate microphone attachment for improved quality.
Do I need to be worried about the privacy of my captions?
No, live caption data is permanently deleted after the meeting is over. Additionally, no one has access to this data as the Microsoft Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology service that generates the captions has no human intervention, and no one can access the meeting audio or any other meeting information.
Additional resources
For more information on this topic, please see the Microsoft support article on how to Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings.