How to Translate Live Captions in Microsoft Teams

[@AhmedTelleserDehyer]

For me, I usually use Immersive Translate to help me translate them. According to my experience, I think it is really useful.

[@AvinashKumar-c2f]

Hi , I can not see subtitles language after switching on Subtitles and selecting the spoken language. Could you please help ? (FYI: I have admin rights but my ID has MS365 Business basic Licence.)

[@paulomalley]

Hi, Despite this being available for free throughout COVID, Microsoft have decided to move this feature to the Teams Premium licensing. So if your account has not had a Teams Premium licence provisioned to it, you will not be able to access translation component.

[@sofiewidyana7371]

will another participants will see the transcript together? or just me who can see the transcript

[@paulomalley]

Just you will see it. There is generally a notification initially that transcription has been enabled, but that's a legal thing. Users will not be notified as to who has turned it on.

[@strangerthanfiction691]

Hello Paul, do you know If this feature is also available in VDI?

[@paulomalley]

That's a great question. I can't say that I have the capacity to test it out at the moment, but I would guess that it would provided the Teams Desktop client is being run remote machine. I couldn't find anything either way to confirm or deny it in the Microsoft documentation. 😓

[@Omid97818]

Why Microsoft Teams does not support Farsi language?

[@bongo2565]

This is a cool feature as I just got the free trial. I tried a brief translation & caption from Japanese to English and it looks fine (but I need to try longer and complicated sentences). A question though. Say I used this during a team meeting and video recorded it. Then, when I share this video or download it to watch the video, Will I see the translated caption that I saw during the live meeting? I have not found a way to see it so far.

[@paulomalley]

That's an interesting question and I actually am not 100% sure on. I know that Teams doesn't specifically save the captions, but does save the transcription if you have that enabled. I don't have the ability to test this at the moment, but it might be worth running a demo recording and seeing if the transcription can be translated after the call or not.

[@bongo2565]

Thanks for the comment. I will look into this.. I hope this can be done, if not, I would need to seek another solution…

[@Swayned]

@@bongo2565Hey man, any news on that?

[@shubhamk4641]

Sorry if this seems silly, but how can I enable or purchase Teams Premium to access the live transcript translation feature? I tried it on my personal Teams account, but the spoken and transcript languages are the same, and I can't change them.

[@paulomalley]

Not a silly question at all. Teams Premium is one of Microsoft's commercial offerings and is an add-on on top of M365 Commercial. You would likely need to purchase this as a business through either Microsoft directly or a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP).

[@danielreketis4247]

It seems to me that since a few weeks this feature has been removed.

[@paulomalley]

According to the documentation, the feature is still there. - support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/use-live-captions-in-microsoft-teams-meetings-4be2d304-f675-4b57-8347-cbd000a21260 Is it possible that your IT Admin has removed it?

[@juanc4065]

It's a paid feature now. Was only free first half of 2023

[@Max_Mousse]

​@@juanc4065 Hi, could you please link to the page where you've seen this? We are looking to use this feature for bilingual onboarding at my work, but I can't seem to find any info on it

[@jonathan-6948]

I have the business standard and it does not have the option of translation. This was one reason I chose m365 . It's so disappointing. It seems only the business premium has the transition.

[@cowpokea.m.4315]

Thanks for the info! Just a question, when turning on "Live captions" feature in Teams is any notification appears to other users in room while in meeting? I tried to ask this on "Microsoft Build" website and someone gave the answer that there is No Live captions notification shows on other users’ screen. Don't know if this is true?

[@paulomalley]

Not a problem. I've done a little bit of digging around and the latest information states that there isn't a notification for simply turning on captions (without translation). Enabling transcription of the meeting or translation of the captions does (as this requires transcription to be enabled). Essentially, when the transcription is initially activated, attendees are given a heads up, but they aren't made aware of which individuals are using the feature or when people turn it on or off. I have my meetings set to always enable transcription for this reason. That way everyone can feel comfortable in enabling captions should they need them.

[@cowpokea.m.4315]

@@paulomalley Thank you so much for the reply! So simply, if transcription or translation feature is not turned on, any participant can open live captions without notifying other people in the meeting; if either of them is turned on, there will be a notification, but no one does know who that person is.

[@paulomalley]

That is my understanding from the documentation. I'm not in a position right now to test it and confirm unfortunately, but I'm pretty confident. You could test by starting a meeting and inviting your personal account to the meeting to test...

[@cowpokea.m.4315]

@@paulomalley Okay get it! Thanks again for your help!

[@Max_Mousse]

This is fantastic, thank you so much!

[@paulomalley]

Glad it was helpful!

[@nuzlugmcesuk8488]

When I click more it generates an other kind of populated list ! Why?

[@paulomalley]

Sorry, can you explain in more detail what you are seeing? Are you meaning that you aren't seeing the option to change the caption language? If so, that would likely mean that your account does not have access to Teams Premium. Live captions are available to all but the real time translation feature has become a Teams Premium feature.

[@segunolatunji9564]

I cannot change the language of the subtitles.

[@paulomalley]

That likely means that your account does not have a Teams Premium license assigned to it. Captions are free for all, but the translation now requires an additional license. I would suggest connecting with your IT Admin to see if they can assign this to you.

[@rasikathangavel1522]

Will it be private right? Or any option we have to set as private?

[@paulomalley]

Are you asking if the language you select for translation is confidential? Teams does not disclose that information to anyone and never has. However, to use captions on a call, transcription must be enabled. Everyone on the call is informed of this, but they do not know who specifically turned on the captions. This is a legal requirement because it involves recording people's speech.

quick question, if I organize the meeting, it translates what everyone in the meeting is saying or just me? I mean, to translate the whole meeting all the guest should have Teams Premium?

[@paulomalley]

From a licensing perspective, only the meeting organiser requires the Premium licensed in order for the entire meeting to be able to use them. Translations will be for all users. "When the organizer of a Teams meeting or live event is licensed for Teams Premium, the Live translation (for captions), advanced Meetings protection, and advanced Webinars features are extended to all meeting participants, including external and guest users." learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-add-on-licensing/licensing-enhance-teams#which-users-should-be-assigned-teams-premium-licenses

[@sheriffgafar]

It will be amazing if it kept private… people tend to judge

[@paulomalley]

Making use of a feature to ensure you are able to understand and follow the conversation should not be something people judge you on. That sounds horrible. I personally have all of my meetings default to captions on (my current workplace uses Zoom). I had one or two people comment on it initially, but now it is accepted as normal. My original reason for turning them on was others having poor microphones and bad audio quality. I simply explained to them that I prefer to have captions available for everyone to ensure everyone is included in our discussion. This way, not only do I get to make use of the captions, but it normalises it for others as well.

[@juanc4065]

Awesome Video. Thx

[@paulomalley]

No problem!

[@JamesNightstalker]

tell me how it works in the new version because it doesn’t work! I need a translation but I only see subtitles. Or delete this video, it is no longer relevant. don't deceive people thanks

[@paulomalley]

Hi there, According to the documentation, the feature is still there. - support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/use-live-captions-in-microsoft-teams-meetings-4be2d304-f675-4b57-8347-cbd000a21260 However, Microsoft have decided to move this feature to the Teams Premium licensing. So if your IT Admin has not provisioned that licence for you, you will not be able to access this. I am not deceiving anybody and the video is still relevant. Thank you.