How to Enable Transcription in Microsoft Teams

Teams only has transcription available if a meeting has been setup, if no meeting is setup, Teams cannot transcribe.

Note that having meeting minutes transcribed may risk exposure of confidential information, please consider carefully whether it is appropriate to transcribe a meeting, and be aware that all transcriptions must be included in any subject access request.

Enabling and saving transcripts on Microsoft Teams is a simple task, and transcripts make it easy to access notes and search records from your meetings.

Starting/Stopping Transcription During a Teams Meeting

Meeting organisers can start Transcription during a Teams meeting:

1. Go to the meeting controls and select More actions
2. Click on Start transcription

Stopping the transcriptions is done through the exact same steps, and transcriptions will also automatically end when all participants leave the meeting.

Accessing Your Transcripts

Once a meeting is over, the transcript and recording are saved to your selected destination. The files are all classified as tenant-only content, which means admins will have access to them even if the person who initially hosted the meeting leaves the company.

Meeting participants can access the transcripts in the meeting event Microsoft Teams calendar, which are saved as .docx or .vtt files. Participants can download the transcript in three simple steps:

1. Go to the Calendar in Teams
2. Open the meeting event and go to Recordings & Transcripts
3. Click the Download button on the top of the page and choose the file type as which to save it

Why Use Transcripts?

You might be wondering why transcripts are such a big deal. Surely you won’t need to save every word from every meeting, right? Well, there are several reasons why having transcripts is beneficial for businesses:

1. In case you missed it: Sometimes, people have to miss a meeting, or at least a moment of it. Maybe they get sick, or get pulled away for a higher priority meeting, or even have to step out for a minute and end up missing something important. In cases like these, having transcripts ready as soon as the meeting is over helps make sure everyone has a record of the entire conversation, and no one misses an important detail
2. Accessibility: Not everyone hears the same. Many people have hearing loss ranging from mild to profound, so a little help can go a long way. Transcripts and real-time captions assist there by providing a written element to support the conversation, helping attendees catch what’s being said during or after the meeting
3. Compliance and record keeping: Keeping records of meetings and conversations can be particularly important for industries like legal or financial services. In these cases, having transcripts for calls and meetings means you have a complete record of everything that was said, which is useful for both compliance and personal records. You can go back through the transcript and see who said what, so you’ll have records for things like agreements, quoted prices, and account details. Legal and HR departments will also appreciate having the transcripts on file, should any disputes arise
4. Training: Transcripts are also helpful outside of meeting notes, as they can be used for teaching new employees. For customer support environments, for instance, transcripts can provide written examples of great customer interactions employees can reference while training. Even outside of customer environments, transcripts can give employees who weren’t in the meetings a look behind the curtain, so they’ll know what topics are discussed in meetings with clients or managers
5. Customer support: Transcripts are also helpful for customer service teams for more than just training. Keeping transcripts of customer support calls on file makes it easier to keep clear records of issues (and resolutions), review conversations, and provide better customer support. Transcripts can also be saved to call logs in a CRM, and are easy to quickly skim or search to find information from previous calls

Based on article from https://www.uctoday.com/collaboration/how-to-enable-transcription-in-microsoft-teams