Transcription in Microsoft Teams

This article will detail the setup and use of the Transcription features available in Microsoft Teams for Web & Desktop. 

There are also transcription features for Microsoft Stream, a 365 application available on the web for recorded meetings/audio files that you'd like to transcribe retroactively. 

These services can be accessed at the following links:

Teams

Stream

Starting Transcription in Teams:

Once you're in an active meeting, you should see a number of options on the menu near the top of the meeting—the three dots labelled "More" will open a dropdown menu where you can select your recording options. 

• Start Recording: This will record audio & video, transcribing the audio to text.
• Start Transcription: For meetings without the need for an audio/video recording, you can opt to just transcribe the meeting into text.

Anyone in the meeting can start a recording/transcription, but the organizer of the meeting will be the "owner" of the files created after the meeting has finished—all participants should have those files shared with them after the recording has finished, and files should be immediately available on OneDrive in a folder that's named "Recordings." You can also access it via the recent section of the Chat option in Teams or by double-clicking the event on your calendar, available in Teams or in Outlook—these will be located on the left-hand side of the window in Teams & Outlook. 

After starting transcription, you'll be prompted to select the language of the speaker(s), and then after a moment, a window with your transcription should appear on the right side of the screen. Speakers will be transcribed according to their Teams/365 profile, so multiple speakers on one microphone will be recorded as the signed-in user.

Ending Transcription in Teams:

Using the same menu that started the transcription, you can also end the transcription/recording before you end the meeting if you'd like to stop the recording but still continue to meet:

To end the meeting and save the transcript, the owner can use the dropdown on the "Leave meeting" button to end the call and finalize the transcript:

Once the meeting has ended, the recording will be made available to all participants via OneDrive, Teams Chat, or by opening the meeting in your calendar. 

• OneDrive: Recordings can be accessed in the "Recordings" folder of the "My files" section of OneDrive
• Teams Chat: In the Recent section, you should be able to see the meeting's name with the subtitle "Recording is ready"
• Calendar (Outlook/Teams) Double-click on the meeting to open the meeting's details

From here, you should be able to view the recording & transcript, with options to download the transcript available above the transcription window. You can download transcripts as Word .docx files or .vtt files if you have another transcript/video platform.

Voice Profile:

In an environment where you can't control all of the background noise, you may benefit from setting up a voice profile in Teams. Using noise isolation, this can help eliminate background noise from being caught by the transcription. To set up a voice profile, you can follow these steps:

At the top of the Teams window will be three dots; clicking on these will open a dropdown menu where you can click "Settings." This will take you to a page where you can tweak various Teams settings. To set up a voiceprint, click into "Recognition" and then "Create voice profile." Be aware that you cannot modify these profiles once in a meeting, so it's best to set one up beforehand if you feel like your environment could disrupt the transcription.