Is Adding a Subtitle To a Zoom Meeting or Webinar a Paid Feature?

Zoom Video Communications has seen an enormous surge in appeal due to the increasing use of remote sessions, webinars, and video conferencing. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has shown the value of remote meetings and conferences. Recording Zoom meetings and including subtitles is vital because keeping track of every detail shared in consecutive Zoom encounters can be challenging.

Subtitles allow you to watch the recordings afterward and understand who is saying what, especially if the Zoom sessions have many attendees from various countries. However, while the Zoom program is quite simple, adding captions and subtitles to Zoom videos, recordings, and meetings is a commonly requested issue. Captions significantly increase video accessibility for deaf or hard-of-hearing meeting participants. At the same time, subtitles are required for multilingual video conferencing attendees.

There's no doubt that Zoom generates subtitles for your webinars or sessions. However, many recommend using third-party captioning services to make or add subtitles to your videos because it is simple and has various features to pick from. This also begs the question of whether adding a subtitle to a Zoom meeting is free or paid. Join us as we help you answer these questions and get valuable information. Let's go!

Creating Subtitles During Live Zoom Meetings

Zoom offers live captioning during meetings and webinars. All users can also access the feature on Zoom as an automated service utilizing automatic speech recognition technology, otherwise known as live transcription. However, hosts must enable it for individual meetings. There are other prerequisites to consider if you want to view captions during your next Zoom conference.

First, you must install the Zoom desktop client for Windows, macOS, or Linux with the Global Minimum Version or above. Then, if you're using smartphones, Zoom mobile apps for Android or iOS must have a Global minimum version or higher. You must also activate manual or automated Zoom captions.

To create subtitles during live Zoom meetings, here's a step-by-step guide below:

- Step 1. Go to the Zoom website, sign in to your Zoom account, and find the 'Settings' option in the navigation panel.

- Step 2. Under Zoom's 'Settings' menu, select the 'In Meeting (Advanced)' section in the 'Meetings' tab.

- Step 3. To find 'Automated Captions' and the 'Manual Captions' options, go down. If they are currently disabled, turn on the switch to enable them.

- Step 4. Leave the 'Settings' tab and join or begin a Zoom meeting. Select the 'Closed Captions (CC)' option you will find in the toolbar (CC) once you enter the Zoom meeting, and a pop-up menu will appear.

- Step 5. The 'Enable Captions' option is located within the host controls. This function makes Zoom's closed captioning functionality available, letting you see captions during the Zoom meeting or webinar. You may see 'Disable Captions' on the screen. If that happens, the feature is already enabled.

It is vital to emphasize that automatic captions can be insufficiently accurate to substitute for people who rely on captions. There are provisions to type captions directly into Zoom or add them through an interaction with a third-party software or service for people who need a modification. Third-party captioning services, such as Happy Scribe, Rev, Otter, and Fireflies, to name a few, are available for disabled participants or others who need the captions for different reasons.

Generating captions for recorded Zoom meetings

Zoom can create subtitles for archival videos if a Zoom meeting or webinar is captured and stored in the cloud. Before you can record an event, you must first enable this functionality. Like their live auto-transcription service, this function uses automatic voice recognition technology, which often needs to be more precise to substitute for users who rely on captions.

You can either edit the automated captions in Zoom or download the video and caption it manually to achieve a level of accuracy sufficient for publication.

Can I Add Subtitles To A Zoom Meeting For Free?

Zoom does not include built-in capabilities for adding unpaid subtitles to meetings. However, you can use third-party services or software with automatic transcription and captioning functionality to add subtitles to your Zoom meetings. These services may have unpaid plans with limitations or trial periods. Still, some may also demand a subscription for full functionality.

For this reason, you can look into third-party captioning services like Happy Scribe, Rev, Otter.ai, or other transcribing services that integrate with Zoom. Remember that the availability of features and pricing may have changed, so check the most recent information on Zoom's website and associated third-party services.

How To Transcribe Zoom Sessions With Happy Scribe

1. Once logged into your Zoom account, you can begin recording the Zoom conference.

2. Hang up the phone and double-check that you saved the Zoom cloud recording. Your video and audio recordings will automatically be saved to My Documents or Google Drive.

3. Sign in or create a Google account for your Happy Scribe account.

4. Click on the "Upload a file" instruction and upload the audio or video recording you made during the Zoom live chat.

5. Select the language used during the Zoom meeting.

6. Click the "transcribe" button and wait for Happy Scribe to transcribe your Zoom recording.

7. Once completed, your transcripts will be available.

8. Proofread your transcripts before exporting them.

Adding Subtitles To Zoom Videos With Happy Scribe

Happy Scribe is an automated transcription software that uses automatic voice recognition engines to help transcribe swiftly. Happy Scribe's uses span from transcription of a Zoom meeting to captioning online content, and it is the ideal solution for leveraging the power of transcription.

Manually adding subtitles to a video requires writing the audio's speech into a text file and meshing it with the video. Users can seamlessly create subtitles by using an audio-to-text converter. On the other hand, Happy Scribe provides a specific tool for automatically generating subtitles from a video file by utilizing the subtitle generator. Video editors and content makers can use this application to quickly add subtitles to their videos. There will be no more manually transcribed audio files.

Happy Scribe is also an excellent tool for first-time users. For the first 10 minutes, you can transcribe everything you want without paying. You can transcribe your Zoom meetings using different methods and experiment with various tools for ten minutes before being prompted to pay for either a monthly subscription, which costs $9 per hour, or extra usage, which costs $12 per hour. As you can see, it features excellent subscription plans and is simple to use.