Zoom plans to launch support for automatic closed captioning for free accounts this fall, as part of its efforts to make the service more accessible, the company announced. If you are a free account holder who needs to access the feature before that, Zoom allows users to manually request access to the Live Transcription feature via a Google Form linked to your ad.
Automatic transcriptions are not an entirely new Zoom feature. The service previously offered live transcription with AI technology for all of its paid accounts. Otherwise, the meeting hosts would have to manually add their own captions or use a third party service. But now the feature will be available to millions of people who rely on Zoom’s services for free. A Zoom support page informs you that its live transcription feature is only available in English.
Automatic closed captions are also available with other video conferencing services, such as Google Meet. Given how widely used Zoom has become since the pandemic began, however, it’s great to see it add more accessibility features. Previous efforts to make Zoom more accessible included allowing meetings to pin and highlight interpreters on a call, as well as adding screen reader support.