Enabling manual captions

Zoom has many options for creating virtual closed captioning in your Zoom meetings and webinars that provide subtitles for video conferencing. These options can be enabled and used by participants to easily follow the conversations or to meet accessibility requirements.

In meetings, the host or another meeting attendee assigned by the host can provide manual captioning, an integrated third-party closed captioning service can provide the captioning, or Zoom’s automated captions (also known as live transcription) feature can provide automatic captioning through closed caption settings. These same options are available with webinars, although manual captioning can only be provided by the host or a panelist. Any of these captioning options are also viewable in Zoom Rooms. 

Prerequisites for enabling manual captions

• Account owner or admin privileges

Note: If a host or admin disables Manual captions and enables Automated captions, then users who are on clients older than version 5.9.0 can't view automated captions (live transcription). All users on version 5.9.0 and higher can still view and use automated captions, as long as the host is on version 5.9.0 or higher, and enables live transcription within the meeting.

How to enable manual captions for meetings and webinars

Account

To enable manual captions for all users in the account:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit account settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Click the Meeting tab.
4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Manual captions toggle to enable or disable it.
5. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
6. (Optional) If you want to prevent all users in the account from changing this setting, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.
7. (Optional) Select the check boxes to enable additional features, then click Save:
   
   • Allow host to type or assign a participant to type
   • Allow use of caption API Token to integrate with 3rd-party Closed Captioning services

Group

To enable manual captions for a group of users:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit groups.
2. In the navigation menu, click User Management then Groups.
3. Click the applicable group name from the list.
4. Click the Meeting tab.
5. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Manual captions toggle to enable or disable it.
6. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
   Note: If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at the account level and needs to be changed at that level.
7. (Optional) If you want to prevent users in the group from changing this setting, click the lock icon  , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.
8. (Optional) Select the check boxes to enable additional features, then click Save:
   • Allow host to type or assign a participant to type
   • Allow use of caption API Token to integrate with 3rd-party Closed Captioning services

User

To enable manual captioning for meetings or webinars you host:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
3. Click the Meeting tab.
4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Manual captions toggle to enable or disable it.
5. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
   Note: If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at either the group or account level. You need to contact your Zoom admin.
6. (Optional) Select the check boxes to enable additional features, then click Save: 
   • Allow host to type or assign a participant to type
   • Allow use of caption API Token to integrate with 3rd-party Closed Captioning services