Google: Google Meet gets this important feature for video recordings: What is it – Times of India

Video calling platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet became important everyday tools since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. These video conferencing services have also improved significantly in the last few years. This journey was embarked on by the leading apps which regularly updated their platforms with new features, bug fixes and accessibility improvements. Google has now updated its video calling tool, Meet, with in-meeting live translated caption. This feature will help Google Meet users to bridge language barriers, distances, and disabilities. Now, Google is currently improving this feature by including captions in meeting recordings.
Google Meet caption support for video recordings: What is it
This feature can be handy for users who have hearing disabilities like partial or complete deafness. Such users usually depend on subtitles for movies and other video recordings. Keeping the accessibility of these users in mind, Google rolled out real-time auto-generated subtitles for Meet calls in the US in 2021. Currently, both hosts and co-hosts can record a meeting and can also enable captions for the recording.
Google Meet caption support for video recordings: Availability
However, not all Google Workspace account supports recording. So, users need to check if their account supports the functionality before starting their sessions. Teachers and co-teachers who start Meet sessions through Google Classroom will also be able to see this option. Google Meet’s option to add captions to video recordings will be available to meeting hosts that have eligible Workspace accounts.
The feature has already started appearing for some users. However, it may take some time before the option reaches every Meet user. Google has also said that tthe rollout will be complete by March 15. Since this is an accessibility feature, Google has made it available to all accounts with native permission to record meetings. Apart from this, users can also enable Android’s Live Transcribe feature or Chrome’s Live Captions which will offer similar transcriptions while watching Meet recordings.

Google Meet caption support for video recordings: How will it work
This new addition will help hearing-impaired Meet users to participate in meetings at times they feel convenient. These users can also access third-party speech-to-text utility tools to watch and understand Meet recordings.
However, the controls for recording captions will only be available to hosts of a particular call. So, the hosts and cohosts need to be mindful of the needs of the meeting attendees while setting up the Meet session. The hosts will also be able to share the captioned recording. These recordings are saved in their Google Drive as an MP4 file in a folder named “Meet Recordings.”