Frequently asked questions about meeting captions and transcript updates (May 2026)
On May 18, Zoom is updating how captions and transcripts work in meetings to provide a clearer separation between live accessibility features (captions) and saved meeting records (transcripts). Captions are designed for real-time readability during meetings, while transcripts are for retaining and saving speech-to-text data in the meeting.
Frequently asked questions about the meeting captions and transcript changes
What's changing with captions and transcripts?
Captions (live)
Captions are a live accessibility feature, and users will no longer be able to save captions after a meeting ends. Here's what to expect:
- Captions will continue to be available during meetings for real-time accessibility, with the ability to scroll back to review captions from the past 3 minutes.
- Participants cannot retain, save, or download captions as a post-meeting asset.
- Captions remain available during playback of recordings.
Note: If you want to retain speech-to-text data from your meetings, you'll need to enable Meeting transcript.
Transcripts (retained meeting record)
Transcripts are the saved record of meeting content.
- Transcripts aren't enabled by default—a host or admin must explicitly turn them on. Meeting hosts can manage transcript availability during meetings, and participants may be able to request transcript access during a meeting.
- Note: Current settings will be migrated to the new settings based on your account's current configuration, but you are encouraged to review and confirm that the new settings align with your account's preferences for transcript generation and retention.
- When enabled, transcripts are generated and retained according to the new meeting transcript settings.
- Admins can configure transcripts to always be on for all meetings in their organization.
What settings are being updated?
As part of this change, a number of transcript and caption settings are being updated and consolidated. Current settings will be migrated to the new settings based on your account's current configuration, but you are encouraged to review and confirm that the new settings align with your account's preferences for transcript generation and retention.
Existing setting changes
On May 18, the following existing settings will be removed:
- Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) > Full transcript
- Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) > Save captions
- Recording & Transcript > General > Allow users to retain, access, and manage transcripts generated by AI Companion features for use by other AI Companion services
Note: Transcript settings for My Notes, archival, and cloud recordings will continue to be managed in separate locations in the web portal. Additionally, all other caption settings not listed above, such as Manual captions and Automated captions, are not affected by this change.
New settings being added
The deprecated settings will be consolidated into a new setting (Meeting transcript) and sub-settings for transcripts at the account, group, and user levels.
In the Zoom web portal, the following setting and sub-settings will be under Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced):
- Meeting transcript: Allows for the generation and retention of transcripts according to the following settings:
- Automatically generate transcripts for: Automatically generate transcripts for all meetings, or for meetings that have a summary.
- Retention and permissions:
- Delete transcripts after a specified number of days: Choose if you want transcripts deleted automatically after a specified number of days.
- Allow hosts to view and manage transcripts after the meeting: Choose whether to allow hosts to view, delete, and download transcripts after the meeting.
- Allow all meeting participants to view transcripts during the meeting: Choose whether to allow all participants to view transcripts during the meeting.
- Allow saving of transcripts to computer by: Choose who can save transcripts to their device. Options include the host only, host and co-hosts, all participants who are not guests (external participants), all participants with specified IP addresses or ranges, and all meeting participants.
When are these changes taking place?
The changes to captions and transcripts are taking place on May 18.
After the May 18 rollout, captions will no longer be saveable or downloadable. If your organization relies on saved captions, you'll need to enable transcripts to continue retaining speech-to-text data.
What does this mean for my account?
If you previously relied on saved captions, you must use transcripts instead to retain speech-to-text data.
What are the recommended actions I should take?
These changes will take place on May 18. We recommend reviewing your transcript settings configuration before or during rollout to help ensure continuity and alignment with your account's preferences.
