Microsoft Teams live translation: captions and meeting chat

Choose a caption language during the Teams meeting

Open the meeting controls and turn on live captions. In caption settings, check the meeting’s spoken language first, then choose Translate to if it is available. People can read a translated caption while hearing the original speaker.

Missing Translate to does not mean the speaker is muted. Microsoft makes this option dependent on licenses; what an organizer can enable for everyone differs from what an individual license holder can see. Ask the organizer or administrator about the specific meeting.

Microsoft Support: live and translated captions in Teams

Find the right thread after a call

In Chat, select the meeting by its name, then open its Chat tab. A self-chat, the Files tab and a preview in the chat list are not the meeting’s message history. Copy one message into the translator below, even if the meeting has already ended.

In the CastReader preview, use Translate chat in the thread header. A Teams Free meeting chat showed “The meeting notes are ready for review.” with “会议纪要已准备好，可供审阅。” Meeting-start and participant-joined notices were left alone. If only old messages are visible and Teams asks you to sign in again, restore the Teams session before expecting new arrivals.

Check a translated reply before anyone sees it

For new captions and messages during the call, start Meeting translation in the browser preview. A reply is a separate action: open the gear, translate a draft into the recipient’s language, review it, copy it into Teams, then send it yourself. Closing the gear leaves translation running.

If Teams does not give a guest a chat box, CastReader cannot send on their behalf. In a private Teams Free test we could translate the guest’s spoken captions, but the host had to send the chat example. This test did not cover every organization’s meeting policy.