Filter Profane Words in Microsoft Teams Captions
Filtering profane words in Microsoft Teams captions automatically replaces offensive language with asterisks during live calls to keep your meetings safe and professional. This built-in privacy feature hides unwanted terms directly on your personal screen while colleagues speak.
You can turn on this setting in Microsoft Teams version 1.5.75.0 and newer. Once you switch it on, the app scrubs inappropriate words from your live meeting captions without extra steps.
Enable the “Offensive language” setting in Microsoft Teams Accessibility settings. Navigate to Settings, then Accessibility, and toggle “Filter out profane words in live captions” to On. This masks inappropriate words with asterisks for your view.
Latest Update
You can turn on this feature in Microsoft Teams version 1.5.75.0 and newer. It is now generally available.
What happens when you enable the filter?
Turning on the filter to filter profane words in Teams means the AI checks the meeting’s audio live.
How to toggle profanity filtering
You can filter profane words in Microsoft Teams by turning on the profanity filter inside your app settings. To do this, open Teams, click the three dots near your profile picture, choose Settings, go to the Accessibility tab, and turn on the switch for Show profanity in captions. This hides curse words with asterisks during live meetings.
- Launch the Microsoft Teams app from your Start menu or Taskbar.
Microsoft Teams in Start menu 
Turn on or off automatically starting Microsoft Teams - Click the Settings and more (…) icon located near your profile picture.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
Microsoft Teams settings button for filtering captions - Navigate to the Accessibility tab on the left sidebar.
- Under the Captions section, locate Filter out profane words in live captions.
- Toggle the switch to On to mask words, or Off to see all text.
Filter out profane words in live caption with Teams
Changing it only affects your view of the captions.
Latest Update
Note: This setting is user-specific. Changing it only affects your view of the captions. Meeting participants will need to set this themselves unless an administrator applies an organizational policy.
Supported platforms and limitations
The profanity filter in Teams works on Windows, Mac, and the web, but it's mainly for English and only affects live captions.
Latest Update
The profanity filter in Teams works on Windows, Mac, and the web, but it's mainly for English and only affects live captions. The filter is constantly being updated to better understand slang and regional variations, but may not catch all offensive terms.
Summary
Filtering profane words in Teams is a straightforward way to make your meetings more professional and accessible for everyone.
User Scenarios and Benefits
Filtering profane words in Microsoft Teams live captions helps keep public calls and large meetings professional by automatically replacing curse words with asterisks. This feature stops distractions and keeps everyone focused on the discussion, which works especially well for external client calls, schools, and workplaces with diverse groups.
Limitations and Accuracy
The Microsoft Teams profanity filter relies on artificial intelligence, which means it is not completely accurate and might miss some curse words or block normal words by mistake. Regional slang, acronyms, and fast speech make it hard for the filter to catch every instance of inappropriate language during a live meeting.
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About the Author
Richard
Tech Writer, IT Professional
Richard is a writer at Geek Rewind who turns complex IT tasks into clear, step-by-step guides. He draws on years of hands-on experience in system administration and enterprise IT operations, focusing on Windows, Linux and WordPress: the problems people actually run into, and the fixes that work. His server and WordPress guides come from systems he runs himself. Richard builds and maintains the platform behind Geek Rewind, from its Ubuntu servers and Nginx configuration to its custom WordPress plugins. Many new tutorials start with readers' questions, and he's always glad to answer them in the comments.
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