Windows | macOS | Linux
View closed captioning or live transcription during a meeting or webinar
- Sign in to the Zoom desktop app.
- Join a meeting or webinar.
- In the meeting controls toolbar, click the Show Captions icon .
- (Optional) Click-and-drag the captions to move their position in the meeting window.
Note: Closed captioning is available on Linux, but live transcription is not yet available.
Set your speaking language
You may be prompted to set the speaking language when you enable captions. The speaking language selection impacts all participants. English is the default language, but other languages can be selected. This tells the system which language it will hear you speak in and generates captions in that language. If speaking in language A, but Zoom is expecting language B, the generated captions will be inaccurate.
- In the meeting controls toolbar, next to Show Captions , click the up arrow icon .
- Click Speaking language, then select a language.
- On the pop-up, confirm the language you want to set as the spoken language, then click Save.
Zoom will transcribe captions in the chosen language for all participants.
Notes:
- The availability of languages is determined by the host's automated captioning settings.
- In versions lower than 5.12.9, when a participant turned on captions, they would immediately see captions in whatever language other people are speaking in. If another participant had their speaking language set to German, then the person who just turned on captions would see German.
Requesting captions in the meeting
If the host has restricted who can enable captions in a meeting, participants will need to request captions be enabled for the current meeting. The host and potentially co-hosts as well, depending on settings, will receive the request and can approve or decline, as well as setting the speaking language.
- Join a Zoom meeting or webinar.
- In the meeting controls toolbar, click Request Captions .
A request is sent to the host, with a notification in the center meeting window.
The host and potentially co-hosts will review the request and then approve or decline.
If approved, captions will immediately appear for the requestor and others.
Automatically show captions when available
If you want to always have captions displayed, if they are available in that meeting or webinar, users can adjust their client accessibility settings to make this happen automatically.
- Sign in to the Zoom desktop app.
- Click your profile picture then click Settings.
- Click the Accessibility tab.
- Under Closed Captioning, click the checkbox to enable Always show captions.
When captions are enabled by the host of the meeting or webinar, captions will be automatically displayed for you.
Web client
View closed captioning or live transcription during a meeting or webinar
- Join a meeting or webinar through the Zoom web client.
- In the meeting controls toolbar, click the Show Captions icon .
Set your speaking language
When using automated captions, English is the default language, but other languages can be selected. This tells the system which language it will hear you speak in and generates captions in that language. If speaking in language A, but Zoom is expecting language B, the generated captions will be inaccurate.
- In the meeting controls toolbar, next to the Show Captions icon , click the up arrow icon .
- Click Speaking language, then select a language.
- On the pop-up, confirm the language you want to set as the spoken language, then click Save.
Zoom will transcribe captions in the chosen language.
Note: The availability of languages is determined by the host's automated captioning settings.