Using live captions in Microsoft Teams

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Turning on live captions (sometimes referred to as subtitles) in Microsoft Teams allows you to read the words that are being spoken
during the session.

This is a feature which must be turned on by individual participants during the session. This guide covers how to do so via your desktop computer or laptop, and the separate process for using a smartphone. Here is how:

Using a Desktop Computer or Laptop

i. Join the session using the link provided.

ii. Left-click on the three dots located in the top right of the Microsoft Teams window, then scroll down to Language and speech. Left-click on ‘Show live captions’ from the options available (see below):

Shows what to select in Microsoft Teams to access the area for live captions

3. This is where you can change the appearance of Live Captions to suit your preferences when joining via desktop or laptop (see below):

Guidance for turning on live captions - arrows point to different aspects and features displayed on the screen, such as options for changing text size, font, colour.

1) This is where captions will appear on your screen during the meeting – this can be adjusted via additional settings.

2) Note the small cog shown on the right hand side of the screen. Left-click here and a menu will appear on the right hand side of your screen displaying the ways in which the visual appearance of closed captions can be adjusted.

3) This shows the menu mentioned above. This is where the appearance of the captioning can be modified to suit your preference. You can change the following:

Font colours.
Background colours for the area where live captions will appear.
The font of the text itself.
The height of the box where live captions will appear.
The position of the live captions (either top or bottom of the screen).

Turning on live captions via smartphone:

Note that the features covered above are not available to smartphone users. With that in mind, we would always recommend joining one of our learning opportunities delivered via Microsoft Teams from a desktop device, and only using a smartphone where you have no alternative.

Here’s how to turn on live captions when using your smartphone:

1) Join the session via the link provided

2) Tap on the three dots to show the meeting settings as shown below:

Arrow pointing to what needs to be clicked on to view caption settings when wanting to turn on live captions during a teams call from a smart phone/mobile device

3) Tap on the text saying ‘Live captions’ as shown below:

Further instructions for turnng live captions on when using a smartphone.

4) Tap on confirm as shown below:

Further instructions for live captioning

5) Live captions will appear at the bottom of the screen, shown as displayed:

further instructions for live captions