Tips & Tricks

How to Add Captions to Zoom With SyncWords

Platforms like Zoom helped the world collaborate and stay connected, and SyncWords was there to caption every key takeaway and emotion through the last couple of years. In this blog post, we take you through the process of adding captions to your Zoom session.

Make Your Zoom Session Complete With SyncWords

You would have read our blog recently on how SyncWords continues to innovate in the world of virtual meetings. As the world’s leading caption provider, SyncWords deployed additional features to help Zoom become more accessible to users worldwide. With SyncWords’ latest roll-out, Zoom users now get to enjoy expanded language support and high accuracy captioning using SyncWords’ Artificial Intelligence. SyncWords remains a true pioneer in the world of AI captioning, with accuracy levels that are unrivalled by other caption providers in the market.

Captioning your Zoom videos and sessions will give all Zoom users comprehensibility. While this may seem obvious, it cannot be stressed enough how it is virtually bringing the world closer. We covered this topic in our recent blog post on how captioning opens up the world of content. If you are an active Zoom user, the chances are you have used or turned captions on at some point. If it happens you haven’t done it yet, let us break down this process for you.

Captioning Your Zoom Session With SyncWords

Here is a simple, 5-step breakdown of how to turn on SyncWords captions for the next Zoom event you host.

  • First up, make sure captions are enabled for your Zoom account. Go to https://zoom.us and log in to your account. You can find the Caption settings under Settings > In Meeting (Advanced) > Manual Captions. Turn on “Manual Captions” and check “Allow Use of Caption API token”.
  • You must be the host to turn on Closed Captions. This feature is not available to co-hosts and attendees. Please note that Closed Captions may be hidden under the “More” button, depending on the size of your Zoom window. For example, if you are on your mobile, you might need to navigate to the “more” menu to enable captions.
  • Once the Closed Captions option has been turned on, click the “Copy the API token” button to paste what you have copied into the chat window with a SyncWords associate.
  • Please note that API tokens on Zoom are valid for only 24 hours. If you need to access an event at a later stage, the API token will need to be updated.
  • Once SyncWords begins to caption your Zoom event or meeting and translate it to a language chosen by the user, a notification will pop up for all users and panelists to indicate that closed captions are now available for the session.

NOTE: If Automated Captions are turned on, the “Closed Captions” button will read “Live Transcript”. If Auto Transcription is enabled, it will interfere with human-generated captions sent to your Zoom meeting or webinar. To turn off “Automated Captions”, click the “Live Transcript” button and select “Disable Auto Transcription”. Also, like with Closed Captions, the “Live Transcript” button may be hidden under the “More” button, depending on the size of your Zoom window.

What Adding Captions Can Do For Zoom Users

What are Captions? Captions are textual representations of all audio information that is present in video files. If you have ever watched TV, you will be aware of Closed Captions that capture words spoken in dialogue, with nametags alerting you to the speaker, and sound cues that give the viewer a holistic experience of the video watched. To contextualize them: captions are synchronized with visual content. Here are all the benefits of captioning your video content or virtual meeting.

  • Improved Accessibility: If you are in a loud environment, like a café, or a library which is a silent zone, turning on captions can make the Zoom session or video accessible without limitations. 
  • Extended Inclusivity: This feature is crucial for many segments of the population, including those that are hard of hearing or those with learning disabilities. It creates a difference for every viewer, thus, ensuring a viewing experience as close to the original as possible.
  • Enhanced Engagement: Since more people are experiencing the content in both view and text form, it provides enhanced engagement, as content can be watched and read at once. With translations to 100+ languages via SyncWords, the audience span grows multifold. 
  • Flexible UX: Depending on user need and environment, each Zoom event or meeting can be followed in several modes, with sound on and captions, or just captions. 
  • Event/ Meeting Scalability: Recorded content (VOD) can go through further transformation with the addition of subtitles. Since content is now in text form, such as caption files and transcripts, these are better indexed by search engines. What’s more: transcripts of your Zoom session can also be downloaded for later consumption and staggered engagement.

Wrapping Up

SyncWords’ focus on innovation is second to none in the captioning industry, with powerful features like AI dictionary and Translation Glossary, making captions accessible for non-English speakers. Using SyncWords, Zoom sessions can now be streamed with real-time captions and subtitles in multiple languages. Using SyncWords powered captions and subtitles next time you host a Zoom event could mean the difference between merely having an audience and having a highly engaged audience. Just follow the 5-step process to turn Closed Captions for your next Zoom session and watch the magic unfold.

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