Live Captioning: Comparison of Service Capabilities

Function Zoom Autocaptioning
(available for breakout rooms as of Jan 2023)
Google Meet Autocaptioning PowerPoint365 Autocaptioning Google Slides Autocaptioning Microsoft Teams Otter.ai Autocaptioning Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) in Zoom
Can provide a transcript Yes No No No No Yes Yes
Can be corrected in real-time No No Yes No No No Yes
Can indicate change in speakers Yes, automatically labels speakers by icon Yes, automatically labels speakers by name No No No Yes, labels speakers by name after training Yes, provided by typist
Can be used outside of videoconferencing No No Yes, only speaker hosting presentation Yes, only speaker hosting presentation No Yes Yes
Individual users have option to turn viewing captions on/off Yes Yes No No Yes N/A Depends on platform used
Currently supports languages other than English Yes No Yes No No No Yes, assuming provider has expertise
Censors content deemed to be explicit No Yes, uses asterisksĀ  Yes, omits some words Yes, omits some words Yes, omits some words No Should not
Engine type (how are the captions generated) Automatic speech recognition (ASR) ASR ASR ASR ASR ASR Human typist
Available for Michigan Medicine Yes No Yes Yes N/A Yes Yes
Notes As of January 2021, Zoom for Health has merged with Zoom on campus, and Zoom at U-M has live transcription available. Based on the Otter.ai recognition technology Free Free with product Free with product; requires Chrome browser Free with product. The feature appears to be experiencing some technical difficulties at this time, and may take some time to appear in meetings. Free option for 300 minutes/month (max 30 minutes per session). Paid options are available; see Otter Plans for pricing. Requires per-use fee. If needed, American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation can be provided via Zoom. NCID maintains a spreadsheet of CART and ASL providers

Updated January 2023