Automated captions use automatic speech recognition (ASR) to caption Zoom meetings/webinars in real time. Automated captions support several languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, and more.

Table of Contents

• Enabling Automated Captions
• Host Controls
• Participant/Attendee Controls
• Tips for Using Automated Captions

Enabling Automated Captions

Automated captions are enabled by default for all NEOMED-licensed Zoom users, but you do have the ability to turn those off or configure such that users must request automated captions for meetings/webinars that you host (see section below.)

Host Controls

Turning Off or Customizing Automated Captions

Meeting/webinar hosts may still opt-out of captioning in their Zoom account settings, by navigating to the section titled Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) and you can turn the Automated captions toggle off. 

If you don't want to enable automated captions for every meeting/webinar you host, but you still want to allow participants/attendees to request them during meetings/webinars, check the Allow only the following users to enable captions for the meeting or webinar box under the Automated captions setting, choose either Host or Host + Co-host, and click Save. Participants/attendees can't request their enablement if this setting isn't selected.

Locking the Caption Language

Any user in-meeting can change the captioning language for all users. In testing this has not been found to seriously affect caption quality, but it can cause users to briefly see non-English characters as the captions are parsed for display. To avoid this issue, as a meeting host, you can lock the caption language in-meeting. Unfortunately this cannot be performed in advance, it must be done once the meeting has started. The host only needs to click the arrow next to the CC icon, and select Host caption control settings and then toggle on the Lock caption language for this meeting.

Participant/Attendee Controls

If the host has not turned off automated captions, you will have the option to choose how you wish to view captions. You can also request the host enable automated captions if they have been turned ooff, and the host allows caption requests. (If the host has turned off your ability to make a request, you should contact the host directly.)

You will have three options after clicking the carrot icon next to Show captions in the toolbar:

• Caption language: Choose which language to use for the captions (if allowed by the host)
  • Hosts can restrict the languages allowed for captions in their account settings.
  • If speaking in language A, but Zoom is expecting language B, the generated captions will be inaccurate, so ensure the correct language is selected.
• View full transcript: The caption transcript will open in a side panel next to your meeting window. It will update in real time with both the speaker's name and timestamp (if allowed by the host)
• Caption settings: Opens the Accessibility settings for your desktop app, where you can adjust the font size and color of the captions

Automatically show captions when available

If you want to have available captions displayed automatically when joining a meeting/webinar, you can adjust your Zoom desktop app accessibility settings.

1. Open the Zoom desktop app.
2. Click your profile picture/initials and select Settings from the drop-down menu.
3. Click Accessibility.
4. Check the Always show captions box under the "Closed caption" section.

Note: If the host has automated captions turned off, this setting will not work for that specific meeting/webinar.

Tips for Using Automated Captions

• Use an external microphone: External microphones (separate from your laptop) can greatly improve audio quality
• Speak slowly - Speaking slowly allows for a more accurate match between the transcript and what is being said verbally and allows others to follow the captions
• Take turns/pause before speaking - Zoom's active speaker tracking is used to identify the speaker. When another individual begins speaking, it can take a second before Zoom updates the captions to identify the new speaker.