Practical guide
Read a Teams meeting with live captions
Show spoken words as text during a meeting. You can use captions without asking Copilot to summarise the conversation.
Based on product documentation. Examples and suggested prompts are editorial advice.
Before you start
Join a Teams meeting on desktop. This guide covers ordinary live captions. Translation has additional licence requirements.
Turn captions on
- Open More actions in the meeting controls.
- Select Language and speech.
- Select Show live captions.
- Watch the caption area while someone speaks.
- Open caption settings if you need to adjust their appearance.
Check with a short sentence
Ask someone to say: “The next meeting is Tuesday at ten.” Check the day and time in the captions. If they differ, confirm the information in chat rather than relying on the automatic text.
If captions are missing or inaccurate
Check the meeting’s spoken language in caption settings. Ask the organiser or IT team about blocked controls. Request a written decision or agenda in chat if captions are unavailable.
Availability and limits
Live captions are not saved as a meeting transcript. Use transcription when you need a record afterwards. Translated captions depend on eligible Teams Premium or Copilot licensing. Automatic speech recognition can mishear names, numbers and overlapping speech.
Sources and checks
Documentation checked: 2026-10-10. Product steps have not been tested in a signed-in vendor app for this edition.
Continue with your next task
Keep a Teams transcript for meeting follow-up
Use a transcript when you need to revisit spoken information. A summary is useful only when you can check it against a record.
Read guideAsk Copilot about selected PowerPoint Live text
As an attendee, select slide text and read an explanation beside the presentation when this feature is available.
Read guide