Enabling or disabling automated captions

Zoom has a variety of options for creating virtual closed captioning in your Zoom meetings and webinars that provide subtitles, including automated captions, manual captions, and third-party closed captioning services. With the automated captions feature, captions are generated in real time to offer a more accessible and flexible virtual communication experience for all participants.

When Automated captions is enabled in the Zoom web portal, users who turn on captions in a meeting or webinar can experience automated captions. Additionally, enabling Automated captions on device allows users to still receive reliable captions for meetings with lower internet connectivity or lower-quality audio because the audio is processed locally on eligible devices.

Requirements for enabling or disabling automated captions

• Account owner or admin privileges
  Note: Some accounts may not have automated captions. If you do not see the setting in your web portal, please contact your Account Executive to enable automated captions for your account.

Limitations for automated captions

• UK National Health Services (NHS) customers can consult Zoom's DCB0129 documentation for use of automated captions within a Healthcare environment.
• Automated captions may not be accurate. Users should keep this in mind when using automated captions in healthcare scenarios.

How to enable automated captions and automated captions on device for meetings and webinars

While the Automated captions and Automated captions on device settings are enabled by default for paid Zoom accounts, account owners and admins can choose to enable or disable the setting for the entire account or groups of users.

Account

To enable automated captioning 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 following toggles to enable or disable the settings. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
   • Automated captions: Allow users to enable automated captions in the selected languages in meetings and webinars.
     1. (Optional) Click the pencil icon to select which languages you want to be available for captioning.
     2. (Optional) Select the Allow only the following users to enable captions for the meeting check box, then choose to give caption enablement to the Host or Host and Co-host.
        Note: If this option is selected, then participants can request that the host enable captions.
     3. Click Save to confirm any changes.
   • Automated captions on device: Allow users on supported devices to process automated captions on their device in meetings. This feature is available on the Zoom Workplace desktop app version 6.5.3 and higher. 
5. (Optional) To prevent users in the account from changing these settings, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.

Group

To enable automated captioning 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 Groups.
3. Click the applicable group name from the list.
4. Click the Meeting tab.
5. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the following toggles to enable or disable the settings. If a verification dialog appears, 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.
   • Automated captions: Allow users to enable automated captions in the selected languages in meetings and webinars.
     1. (Optional) Click the pencil icon to select which languages you want to be available for captioning.
     2. (Optional) Select the Allow only the following users to enable captions for the meeting check box, then choose to give caption enablement to the Host or Host and Co-host.
        Note: If this option is selected, then participants can request that the host enable captions.
     3. Click Save to confirm any changes.
   • Automated captions on device: Allow users on supported devices to process automated captions on their device in meetings. This feature is available on the Zoom Workplace desktop app version 6.5.3 and higher. 
6. (Optional) To prevent users in the group from changing these settings, click the lock icon  , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.

User

To enable automated captioning for meetings or webinars you host:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
3. Click the Meeting tab.
4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the following toggles to enable or disable the settings. If a verification dialog appears, 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.
   • Automated captions: Allow users to enable automated captions in the selected languages in meetings and webinars.
     1. (Optional) Click the pencil icon to select which languages you want to be available for captioning.
     2. (Optional) Select the Allow only the following users to enable captions for the meeting check box, then choose to give caption enablement to the Host or Host and Co-host.
        Note: If this option is selected, then participants can request that the host enable captions.
     3. Click Save to confirm any changes.
   • Automated captions on device: Allow users on supported devices to process automated captions on their device in meetings. This feature is available on the Zoom Workplace desktop app version 6.5.3 and higher. 

Supported languages for automated captioning

Supported languages currently include:

• Arabic
• Cantonese
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Estonian
• Finnish
• French (France)
• French (Canada)
• German
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Hungarian
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Malay
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Tagalog
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese