Enabling and configuring translated captions

Zoom translated captions enable users to have the speech in a meeting or webinar automatically translated in real-time to captions in another language. For example, if a meeting participant is speaking in English, other participants can view captions German, Italian, Japanese, etc.

Available caption languages are determined by the host in web settings before the live session, but participants can self-enable captions and switch languages without the need of the host. Learn how to view captions in another language.  

This article contains:

Prerequisites for enabling translated captions

*Note: Please contact Sales to find out pricing information and to purchase. 

Limitations for translated captions

Supported languages for translated captioning

The following languages are supported for translated captions and can be translated between most* of the listed languages:

*Note: Dialects of one another are not currently supported for translation, such as translating between French (France) and French (Canada). 

The following languages are supported when translating from one of the fully supported languages above, but cannot be the source language, as they are not yet supported for automated captions:

How to enable translated captions

Enable/disable translated captions at the account level

To enable or disable translated captions for all users in the account:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit account settings.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
  3. Click the Meeting tab.
  4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Translated captions toggle to enable or disable it.
    Note: Automated captions must be enabled for you to be able to enable this feature.
  5. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
  6. (Optional) Click Edit translation languages to select language pairs you want available in the meeting.
  7. (Optional) To prevent all users in your account from changing this setting, click the lock icon  , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.

Enable/disable translated captions at the group level

To enable or disable translated captions for a group of users:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit groups.
  2. In the navigation menu, click User Management then Group Management.
  3. Click the applicable group name from the list.
  4. Click the Meeting tab.
  5. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Translated captions toggle to enable or disable it.
    Note: Automated captions must be enabled for you to be able to enable this feature.
  6. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
    Note: If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at the account level and needs to be changed at that level.
  7. (Optional) Click Edit translation languages to select language pairs you want available in the meeting.
  8. (Optional) To prevent all users in the group from changing this setting, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.

Enable/disable translated captions at the user level

To enable or disable translated captions for your own use:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation panel, click Settings.
  3. Click the Meeting tab.
  4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Translated captions toggle to enable or disable it.
    Note: Automated captions must be enabled for you to be able to enable this feature.
  5. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
    Note: If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at either the group or account level. You need to contact your Zoom admin.
  6. (Optional) Click Edit translation languages to select language pairs you want available in the meeting.

How to configure language pairs

Captions are translated according to the language pairs that have been enabled. A language pair consists of an input speaking language and the output caption language.

For example, if you were hosting a presentation and planned to speak in English, but were expecting clients from Spain, China, and Ukraine to attend, you would want to enable English as the Speaking Language and Spanish, Chinese, and Ukrainian as the Translate to languages, so that those languages are available for your participants in the meeting.

Customers are able to choose their preferred language during the meeting, which in turn provides the captions in that language.

By default, all supported language pairs are enabled, but these can be adjusted to suit your needs.

  1. After enabling translated captions, click Edit translation languages.
    The Translation Languages window will appear.
  2. (Optional) Click the Select all language pairs check box to enable all available language pairs. This option is enabled by default.
  3. Under the Speaking Language column, click the check box next to each language to include or exclude that language as a possible input language.
  4. For languages that you have enabled, click the drop-down menu under the Translate to column to select which languages you want captions to be translated into.
  5. Click Save to confirm your selections.