How to Enable or Disable Captions in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams captions provide real-time text of what is being said during a meeting. This helps people who are hard of hearing or those in noisy environments. Why use them? They make meetings inclusive and easier to follow. What happens when done? You get a visual record of the conversation as it happens.
It is important to know the difference between live captions and live transcripts. Live captions show text in real-time but do not save it after the meeting ends. Live transcripts create a saved document that you can review later. This is great for taking notes.
How to Enable or Disable Captions in Teams
You can turn on captions for all your meetings. Follow these steps:
1. Launch the Microsoft Teams app from your Start menu.
2. Click the Settings and more (…) button near your profile picture.
3. Select Settings from the menu.
4. Click the Accessibility tab on the left.
5. Under Captions, toggle the switch for Always show captions in my calls and meetings.
What happens when done? Your meetings will now automatically show text at the bottom of the screen.
Changing Spoken Language During a Meeting
If your meeting is in a different language, you can change the caption settings:
1. During a meeting, click the More (…) button in the top toolbar.
2. Select Language and speech.
3. Choose Spoken language and select the language being spoken.
What happens when done? Teams will now accurately transcribe the specific language being used.
Administrative and Policy Controls (Admin Only)
Note: This section requires admin privileges. IT administrators can control these features for the whole company using the Teams admin center. You can use PowerShell to manage these policies. For example, you can use the following command to set meeting policies:
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity Global -LiveCaptionsEnabled Enabled
Why do this? It ensures that company data privacy standards are met across all user accounts.
See Also
Summary
Enabling Microsoft Teams captions improves accessibility and meeting clarity. You can easily toggle these settings in the Accessibility tab. For advanced needs, Teams Premium offers live translation, while administrators can manage these features via the Teams admin center. Always remember that live captions are temporary, while transcripts provide a permanent, searchable record of your discussions.
Does Teams store caption data?
Live captions are processed in real-time and are not stored by Microsoft after the meeting ends. However, if you enable live transcription, the transcript file is saved to the meeting organizer’s OneDrive or SharePoint storage, depending on your organization’s data retention policies.
Who has access to live caption data?
Only participants in the meeting can see live captions as they appear on their screens. If a transcript is saved, access is restricted to the meeting participants and those with permissions to the file location where the transcript is stored within your organization’s cloud storage.
Can I prevent participants from copying meeting transcripts?
Yes, administrators can restrict the ability to download or copy transcripts through the Teams admin center by adjusting meeting policies. By disabling the transcription feature or restricting file permissions, you can prevent unauthorized users from saving or sharing the text generated during your meetings.
What is the difference between captions and transcripts?
Live captions are temporary and disappear once the meeting is over. They are designed for real-time accessibility. Live transcripts are permanent records that are saved as a document, allowing you to search, download, and review the full conversation history after the meeting has concluded.
What are Teams Premium features for captions?
Teams Premium offers advanced features like live translated captions. This allows participants to see captions in their preferred language, even if the speaker is using a different language. It also provides more granular control over meeting security and branding for professional organizations.
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