How do I set up Zoom?

Setting up your Zoom account can be done in just a few steps. Check out more information here.

Note: You need a paid Zoom account* in order to use live captioning. You can find out what type of account you have on your Account Profile page.

*The paid account restriction is a Zoom constraint. Only paid Zoom account admins (those that have a Zoom Pro, Business, or Enterprise license) can enable live streaming for their users. However, users within their account can be on the basic (free) version of Zoom.

How do I set up Rev Live Captions?

1. Install Rev Live Captions

As the Zoom account admin, you must install the app from the Zoom marketplace.

Click ‘Install’.
You will be asked to Authorize Rev. Click ‘Authorize’.
You’ll know the installation was successful if you’re redirected to Rev’s ‘Zoom Integration Setup’ page.
Note: only Zoom account admins with Marketplace role access can install this app. This role grants admins the ability to control which apps can be installed on the account and by individual users on the account. To set these permissions, navigate to Permissions in the My Admin Dashboard. This page allows admins to pre-approve the installation of apps, apply restrictions, or prevent users on an account from installing apps.

2. Enable closed captions

Users in your Zoom account now have the option to enable live captions for all meetings that they host.

Notes:
- Completing the following steps will automatically enable live captions for all meetings that a user hosts.
- We value your privacy. Therefore, users that do not complete the following steps will not have live captions enabled for their meetings.

They can do this by completing the following steps:

Go to https://zoom.us/profile/setting and navigate to the ‘In Meeting (Advanced)’ section at the bottom of the page.
- Click the ‘Closed captioning’ toggle to turn it on. You can see the ‘on’ state below.
- Note: Zoom may also turn on ‘Save Captions’ automatically when you turn on ‘Closed Captions’. Toggle this ‘off’ if you do not want your meeting participants to access the post-meeting transcripts by default.

Go to the ‘Allow live streaming meetings’ toggle.
- Turn this toggle on.
- Then check ‘Custom Live Streaming Service’. Leave the input box empty.
- See the screenshot below for the correct settings.

3. Start a Zoom meeting

Users that have completed everything in step 2 will now have live captions turned on by default for all of their meetings.

Notes:
- Live captions will only become available after the host joins the meeting – and not before. After the host leaves the meeting, live captions will not be available.
- Live captions are not available in Zoom webinars or Zoom breakout rooms.
- We currently support live captions for meetings up to 2 hours in length. Live captions will time out after this time.

Once live captions are available, all meeting participants will see this indicator in the upper left corner of their Zoom window that confirms that live captions are available in the meeting.

4. Show live captions

Every meeting participant (host and attendees) that wants to show closed captions on their own screens will need to click on the up arrow next to ‘Closed Caption’ and then click on ‘Show Subtitle’.

You’ll know this is successful if captions start appearing on your screen within 30 seconds.

Notes:
- You can show live captions on your desktop, tablet, or mobile device.
- You will not be able to see any captions that occurred before you joined the meeting.

To hide captions, click on the up arrow next to ‘Closed Caption’ and then click on ‘Hide Subtitle’.

Zoom Disclaimer: Zoom is experiencing higher than normal usage which impacts in-meeting performance. This may cause live captioning delays in your meetings.

5. After your meeting has ended

At the end of your meeting, a .txt file of the in-meeting captions will be saved to all meeting participants’ computers only if ‘Save Captions’ is turned on in your Zoom meetings. It’s highly likely that Zoom automatically turns on ‘Save Captions’ when you (the host) turn on the ‘Closed Captions’ setting. This is not a behavior we can control.

Note: This file contains duplicate text because of how quickly we are showing live captions.
To turn on ‘Save Captions’ , go to https://zoom.us/profile/setting and navigate to the ‘In Meeting (Advanced)’ section at the bottom of the page.
- Click the ‘Save Captions’ toggle to turn it on. You can see the ‘on’ state below.

To access other captions output formats, you will need to record your Zoom meeting to your computer or the cloud using the ‘Record’ button in your Zoom Window.

Recording your meeting will give you access to various audio and caption output formats.
- Audio formats available: m4a, mp4, m3u
- Caption output formats available: txt and vtt

How do I disable live captions?

Meeting hosts can disable live captions during a Zoom meeting. To do so, click the ‘…’ on the bottom right corner of your Zoom window and then click on ‘Stop Live Stream’. See screenshot below.

Meeting hosts can also disable live captions for all of their Zoom meetings by completing the following steps:
- Go to https://zoom.us/profile/setting and navigate to the ‘In Meeting (Advanced)’ section at the bottom of the page.
  - Go to the ‘Allow live streaming meetings’ toggle.
    - Turn this toggle off. You can see the ‘off’ state below.

How do I uninstall Rev Live Captions?

As the Zoom account admin, login to your Zoom account and navigate to https://marketplace.zoom.us/user/installed.
Search for the Rev Live Captions app.
Click ‘Uninstall’.

FAQ

Q: Do you have a demo video I can watch that explains how to set up Rev Live Captions?

A: Yes! You can view it on YouTube.

Q: How can I ensure the highest accuracy for my live captions?

A: As a meeting host, find in a quiet place with minimal background noise and speak clearly and loudly into your microphone.

Also, please ask your attendees to mute themselves at the beginning of every meeting. If you can limit the number of voices speaking at once, the accuracy of the captions will improve.

There are a few ways to mute attendees:

Before the meeting(s)

You have the option to automatically mute all attendees whenever they join a meeting that you host. To do that, go to https://zoom.us/profile/setting, go to ‘Mute participants upon entry’, and turn this on – you’ll know it’s on if the toggle has a blue background (see screenshot for the ‘on’ state).

During the meeting(s)

Attendees can mute themselves by pressing the microphone button on the bottom left-hand corner. They have successfully muted themselves when there is a red slash through the microphone.

Alternatively, you can mute all participants in the meeting by navigating to the bottom of your Zoom window, clicking ‘Manage Participants’, and then clicking ‘Mute All’. See this Zoom support article for more information.

Q: Why do I need a paid Zoom account to access live captions?

A: The paid account restriction is a Zoom constraint. Only paid Zoom account admins (those that have a Zoom Pro, Business, or Enterprise license) can enable live streaming for their users. However, users within their account can be on the basic (free) version of Zoom.

Q: I/my colleagues don’t have paid Zoom accounts. Do we have access to live captions?

A: It depends. To enable live captions for meetings that you host, your Zoom account admin must have already installed the Rev Live Captions app.

However, if you are invited to a meeting hosted by someone else, you will have access to live captions regardless of your Zoom account status as long as the meeting host’s Zoom admin has installed the app and turned on live captions.

Q: I see that my meeting is ‘LIVE on Rev Live Captions’ but I/my meeting attendees don’t see any captions. How can we see them?

A: There is no universal setting to show captions for all meeting attendees. Similar to Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube, all viewers have the ability to show/hide live captions on their own screens.

Desktop

To display live captions on your screen, click on the up arrow next to ‘Closed Caption’ on the bottom of your Zoom Window and click on ‘Show Subtitle’.

If you no longer want to see them, click on the up arrow next to ‘Closed Caption’ on the bottom of your Zoom Window and click on ‘Hide Subtitle’.

Don’t see the up arrow? Increase the width of your Zoom meeting window.

Mobile

To display live captions on your screen, click on the ‘…’ on the bottom right-hand corner of the Zoom app, click on ‘Meeting Settings’, and turn on ‘Closed Captioning’. This means that captions will appear within your Zoom mobile app whenever you join a meeting that is being streamed to Rev Live Captions.

If you no longer want to see them, click on the ‘…’ on the bottom right-hand corner of the Zoom app, click on ‘Meeting Settings’, and turn off ‘Closed Captioning’.

Q: I’m seeing delays/lagging with my live captions. How can I prevent this from happening?

A: There is nothing you can do. Zoom is experiencing higher than normal usage which impacts in-meeting performance. This may cause live captioning delays in your meetings.

Q: How do my meeting attendees change the size of the on-screen captions?

A: This is possible, but only from the desktop app. Instruct your attendees to click on the up arrow next to ‘Closed Caption’ on the bottom of your Zoom Window and click on ‘Subtitle Settings’. A window will open where you adjust the size of the on-screen captions.

If they don’t see the up arrow, tell them to increase the width of your Zoom meeting window.

Q: How do my meeting attendees change the font, color, or # of lines of the on-screen captions?

A: Meeting attendees cannot change the font, color, or # of lines of the live captions. These are all preset Zoom settings.

Q: How do I disable live captions for my meetings?

A: You can disable live captions at any time during the meeting.

To disable live captions, click on the ‘…’ on the bottom right corner of your Zoom window and then click on ‘Stop Live Stream’. Your meeting will no longer be captioned.

To re-enable live captions, click on the ‘…’ and then click on ‘Live on Rev Live Captions’. You’ll know this was successful when you: 1) see a ‘LIVE on Rev Live Captions’ banner appear in the upper lefthand corner of your Zoom meeting window and 2) see ‘Closed Caption’ appear at the bottom of your Zoom meeting window.

Q: Who has access to my live stream sessions, transcripts, and associated data?

A: Your privacy is important to us. All data sent through our system to live caption your meetings will be deleted immediately and is never stored on our servers.

This means that as a meeting host, only you and your attendees can see the live captions in-meeting.

After the meeting, you and your attendees can access the transcript only if the ‘Save Captions’ setting within your Zoom account is enabled.

To turn on/off ‘Save Captions’, go to https://zoom.us/profile/setting and navigate to the ‘In Meeting (Advanced)’ section where you’ll find the ‘Save Captions’ setting. You can see a screenshot for the ‘off’ state below.

Q: Will this interfere with any other Zoom apps I have installed?

A: This integration currently does not play well with other live-streaming apps, such as Chorus.ai.

If you’d like to show on-screen captions during the meetings that you host, we recommend uninstalling other live-streaming apps before using Rev Live Captions or asking your account admin to disable them for your account.

To see what apps you’ve installed, go to https://marketplace.zoom.us/user/installed and login with your Zoom.us credentials.

Q: Can I get live captions for Zoom meetings of any length?

A: We currently support live captions for meetings up to 2 hours in length. Live captions will time out after this time.

Q: Can you live caption languages other than English?

A: Our app can only caption English.

Q: I have other questions/would like to share my feedback on Rev Live Captions. Who can I contact?

A: Email us at zoomsupport@rev.com. If you’re experiencing an issue with Zoom Live Captions, please include your email address, Zoom meeting ID, and approximate time of issue in the body of your email.

**Please share this FAQ with your meeting attendees. It will help answer any questions they may have about using Zoom and/or setting up Rev’s Live Captions.**

Rev Zoom Live Captioning Meeting Host FAQ