How to Use Live Captions and Transcripts in Microsoft Teams

Bad microphone, background noise, a strong accent or a hard-of-hearing colleague — sometimes you just can't catch what's said in a meeting. Teams can show live captions on screen as people talk, and create a written transcript you can read later.

• Live captions appear at the bottom of your screen during the meeting. They're only visible to you, and they aren't saved.
• Transcripts are a written record of the whole meeting, with each person's name and a timestamp. They're saved and available to attendees afterwards.

1. In the meeting, click ⋯ More.
2. Click Language and speech.
3. Click Show live captions (or Turn on live captions).

Captions appear at the bottom of the screen with the speaker's name. Turning them on doesn't affect anyone else.

To turn them off, go back to the same menu and choose Hide live captions.

If the captions look like gibberish, Teams is probably listening for the wrong language.

1. Click ⋯ next to the captions (or go to ⋯ More > Language and speech).
2. Choose Language settings.
3. Set the meeting spoken language to the language people are actually speaking.

Some Microsoft 365 plans also offer translated captions — you can read captions in your own language while others speak another.

Click ⋯ on the captions to change:

• Text size and colour for easier reading.
• Position — move captions up or down the screen.
• Show speaker names on or off.

1. Click ⋯ More.
2. Choose Record and transcribe.
3. Click Start transcription.

Everyone in the meeting sees a notice that transcription has started. Starting a recording usually starts a transcript automatically too.

Click ⋯ More > Record and transcribe > Stop transcription to stop.

Note: Like recording, transcription may be limited by your organisation's settings, and is usually only available to people from inside the organisation.

• Open the meeting chat and click the Recap tab (or open the meeting from your Teams Calendar and click Recap).
• Click Transcript to read it.
• Use Search to jump to a word or name.
• Click Download to save it as a Word document or text file.

Tip: Paste the transcript into Word (or ask Copilot, if your organisation has it) to quickly turn it into meeting minutes or a list of actions.

I don't see Language and speech. Update Teams and make sure you're using the desktop app or a supported browser. On mobile, captions are under ⋯ More > Turn on live captions.

The transcript is missing. It takes a few minutes after the meeting ends. If it still doesn't appear, nobody started transcription, or your organisation has turned it off.

⋯ More > Language and speech > Show live captions for help following along, and Record and transcribe > Start transcription for a record you can download and search afterwards.