Live Transcription, a paid feature in the ‘Zoom’ video calling App that allows users to see real-time captions during video calls will be made free for all users from the “Fall 2021”, the company said in a blog post.
The feature helps users avoid mis-communication during conference meetings between users from different regions. While the feature will roll out broadly in the fall of 2021, Zoom is offering it to meeting hosts who need it immediately, upon request.
“Among the Zoom Meetings accessibility features we offer to all users are manual closed captioning, keyboard accessibility, pinning or spotlighting interpreter video, screen reader support, and a range of accessibility settings. Now we are excited to announce that we are looking to take our efforts a step further and are working towards making automatic closed captioning —what we refer to as “Live Transcription”— available to all of our users in the fall of 2021”, read the blog post announcing the news.
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Zoom wants to help free account holders who require Live Transcription as a result of which, up until the feature’s broader release, it will be offering automatic closed captioning to meeting hosts upon request. To sign up, one will have to enter their information through a form.
Zoom also requests users to keep patience as it expects a high number of requests for the feature in the upcoming days. Once live transcription is enabled for the requested account, the user will receive a confirmation email with more details.
Zoom’s live transcription currently only supports the ‘English’ language. The company recommends users to speak clearly for best results. The accuracy of Zoom’s live transcription feature depends on many variables like background noise, volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice, speaker’s proficiency with the English language, and lexicons and dialects specific to a geography or community.