Using closed captioning in Zoom Rooms

Zoom Room meeting hosts can enable live transcription for a meeting, or assign participants to manually type captions. If the Zoom Room joins a meeting as a participant, and closed captioning or live transcription is available for that meeting, the captions can be viewed on the Zoom Rooms display. 

This article covers:

• Limitations
• How to enable closed captioning in Zoom Rooms
• How to view closed captions or live transcription in a Zoom Room
• How to assign a participant to manually type captions as a host

Prerequisites for using closed captioning in Zoom Rooms

• Zoom Rooms version 5.12.0 or higher
• Meeting with closed captioning or live transcription
• Role with edit access to Zoom Rooms

Limitations

For a Zoom Room to display captions using live transcription, the meeting host must have a live transcription license. The following are scenarios to consider:

• Live transcription is available for the meeting when:
  • A user with a live transcription license schedules a meeting in a Zoom Room. 
  • A remote user with a live transcription license hosts a meeting, and a Zoom Room joins the meeting as a participant. 
• Live transcription is unavailable for the meeting when:
  • A user without a live transcription license schedules a meeting in a Zoom Room. 
  • A user initiates an instant meeting from the Zoom Room.
  • A remote user without a live transcription license hosts a meeting, and a Zoom Room joins the meeting as a participant. 

How to enable closed captioning in Zoom Rooms

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Room Management then Zoom Rooms.
3. Click Edit next to the Zoom Room you want to enable closed captioning for. 
4. Click the Meeting tab.
5. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Manual captions or Automated captions (live transcription) toggle to enable or disable them.
   Manual captions allows the meeting host to assign a participant to type the closed captions.
   Automated captions (live transcription) uses the meeting audio to automatically create captions.

How to view closed captions or live transcription in a Zoom Room

1. Join a meeting.
2. On the Zoom Rooms controller, tap the Captions icon. You may need to tap the More icon first to see the option. 
3. Meeting hosts can choose between closed captions (manual captions) or live transcription (automated captions). Meeting attendees can only enable live transcription
   • To enable closed captions, tap the toggle next to Enable Manual Captioner. 
   • To enable live transcription, tap a language option under Translate to and ensure that the language displayed next to My Speaking Language is the correct one. 
4. Ensure that the Show Captions toggle is enabled. If not, click to enable it and display the text on the Zoom Rooms display. 

How to assign a participant to manually type captions as a host

1. Tap Participants, then tap a participant in the participants list.
2. Tap Assign to Type Closed Caption to have that user manually type the captions. 
3. (Optional) Repeat the steps above to assign multiple participants to type closed captions. This can be useful if you need participants to type captions for multiple breakout rooms.