Notes can be taken automatically during meetings by making use of Microsoft Teams’ Live Transcriptions feature in Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Teams used to be well ahead of the pack of Workstream Collaboration applications. However, lately, Microsoft Teams has been pushing its boundaries further to remain relevant in today’s changing times. Due to the radical change in the entire equation of how we work, and the fierce competition that it faces, Microsoft Teams has consistently maintained its high standards.
The most recent feature to join the features Teams provides are Live Meeting transcriptions. Live transcriptions can be accessed during meetings and you don’t have to record the meeting in order to create these transcriptions.
Transcriptions can significantly improve the experience of your meetings. They can help your meetings run more efficiently by automating notes of meetings for you. However, the fact that you don’t have to manually take notes is an advantage. Also, they make meetings more accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf or are in a noisy area or have a different degree of proficiency in their language.
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What is the difference between transcription and Live Captions?
Microsoft Teams has had a live captioning feature for quite a long time now. What’s special regarding Meeting Transcriptions? The most significant difference is accessibility.
Transcriptions are made available following the meeting. You can download them and give them to anyone. This is why we call them “automated meeting notes”. However, Teams doesn’t save captions.
If you also enable captions, they will be only visible to you, but transcription is accessible to all however, users are able to choose to block it.
If the primary reason you would like to allow transcriptions is to ensure that the meeting is inclusive and accessible, then you could opt for captions or transcriptions. If you want to keep a record of the entire meeting transcription is the best way to take.
Pre-Requisites for Using Transcription in Misrosoft Teams
There are some restrictions that come with the use of transcriptions in Microsoft Teams. First of all, it’s only available for scheduled meetings and not available for meetings in the channel or ‘MeetNow’ meetings. If your goal is to be inclusive and easier to understand during an informal or channel meeting, you may opt for live captions.
Additionally, this feature is only accessible when the language spoken can be described as U.S. English. Additionally, it can only be used via the desktop application and is accessible to specific license types only. This basically signifies the Microsoft Teams free users and those with licenses that are not included have access to this feature.
The following organizations with the following licenses are able to access to transcriptions in Teams. Office 365 E1, Office 365 A1, Office Microsoft 365/365 A3, Office 365/Microsoft365 A5, Microsoft 365 F1, Office 365/Microsoft365 F3, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium SKUs.
GCC High, GCC, and DoD users aren’t eligible make use of the feature.
Transcription must also be turned on by the IT administrator. If you are unable to locate the option to enable transcription, you’ll need contact the administrator.
Allowing transcription for your Organization
If you’re an IT administrator for your company visit the Teams administration center.
IT administrators of organizations can allow transcription for all users by incorporating it in the policy for all users or specific individuals by setting different policies for various users.
From the navigation panel to left, select the link for ‘Meetings’..
A few options will be expanded beneath it. Choose ‘Meeting policy’ from the list below.
To allow the option to be used for the entire organization, select the option, or select ‘Global (Org-wide default)’.
Go to section titled ‘Audio & Video’ section. Make sure that the option to allow Transcription to be allowed’ is turned on.
To turn it on selectively there are two choices. You can choose to turn it enabled for all users in the company, and then create an individual policy in which the option to enable Transcription isn’t turned on and give the policy to people you don’t want to have access to the feature. You can also take the opposite direction, in which the option isn’t available all over the world, but only within the policy you have created and you could give it to users who you wish to use the feature.
To add an entirely new meeting policy Go to the ‘Meeting policies’ page, then click the Add button.
Name the policy and set it up in the way you prefer. Hit the Save button.
To assign the policy to users, choose the policy and then click on the ‘Manage Users’ tab.
A panel will be displayed on the right. Find the people you wish to apply the rule to and then click the ‘Apply’ button.
Additionally, you can give policies out to any user group within your company.
Using the Transcription Feature in Meetings
Utilizing the feature during meetings is a stroll through the woods. However, remember that you can just transcribe meetings that have been scheduled. Begin or join the meeting by logging it into your calendar meeting.
The organizer of the meeting and other tenants from the same tenant are able to start transcriptions. Visitors, guests who are from a different tenant, as well as people who are anonymous (people who do not want not to appear in the transcriptions) are not able to start transcriptions in the course of a meeting.
To begin the transcription process, click “More actions” from the toolbar for meetings.
After that, choose “Start Transcription” from the menu options.
There will be a notice that transcription has begun and that you must inform everyone know that the meeting is being recorded. However, other attendees will be aware that the meeting is transcribing. However, it is important to notify everyone in a manner of gesture of respect to those who are able to join via a telephone.
A transcription screen will be displayed to the left. It will contain your username as well as the profile image of the user along with an indication of the date.
Participants at the meeting are able to view or conceal this transcript at any point. Press the button ‘Close’ on the panel to conceal it.
You can also visit the menu More Actions and choose the option to hide transcript from there.
To display the panel, choose “Show transcript” from the menu of More actions.
The organizer of the meeting and the presenters are able to stop transcription and then restart it at any time in the course of the event. For the purpose of stopping transcription, go to the menu More actions and choose ‘Stop Transcription’.
Everyone will receive a notification that you have stopped transcription. The transcription will stop automatically after the attendees leave the room.
Downloading and Sharing Transcriptions
The transcripts of the meeting are available to download immediately following the meeting on Calendar Event. Click on ‘Calendar’ in the navigation panel to the left.
Then, you can open the meeting to the meeting scheduled for that day.
The page for meetings will include an another tab on the top of the page “Recordings and Transcripts”.
The complete transcript will be available for look through on the internet. For downloading it, simply click on the button to download.
The transcript can be downloaded in either .vtt file (a well-known type of transcript) or as a .docx document (Word documents).
Transcriptions can be downloaded through the participants’ accounts until the organizer of the meeting deletes the account.
Mobile users are not able to view the transcription in the mobile application. To allow it to be accessible to participants on mobile devices download the file and upload it to the chat. Visit the chat room and click the “Attach” option to download the document.
Mobile users can find the file within their chat.
Hiding Your Identity in Transcriptions
Teams can recognize the person who is speaking, and the meeting transcripts will automatically contain the user name as well as the name of the person speaking. If you want to remain anonymous when you record your transcriptions, you may conceal your identity. However, you must make this decision prior to a meeting.
Click the ‘Settings and More’ icon (three-dot menu) right next to the profile’s icon in the bar with your title. Select “Settings” in the drop-down menu.
Settings will be open. On the navigation menu to the left, click the section ‘Captions and Transcripts’.
Turn off the switch to ‘Automatically identify me on transcriptions, captions or transcripts’.
Transcriptions are an excellent feature, and Microsoft Teams certainly makes them simple to use. If you ever want to record notes from a meeting or make meeting materials accessible to everyone You can easily transcribe the whole meeting.