How to transcribe a Microsoft Teams recording

Microsoft Teams meeting transcription can save you time and improve productivity by creating searchable text records of your conversations. The native tools offer basic functionality, while third-party solutions like Circleback provide more advanced features.

Why transcribe your Microsoft Teams recordings?

Before diving into the how-to, let's consider why transcribing your Teams recordings is worth the effort:

Better accessibility: Text transcripts make content accessible to everyone, including those with hearing impairments.

Improved searchability: Find specific information without rewatching entire recordings.

Enhanced documentation: Create clear records of decisions, action items, and discussions.

Meeting compliance: Maintain accurate records for regulatory or organizational requirements.

Native Microsoft Teams transcription options

Microsoft Teams offers built-in transcription capabilities, though functionality varies based on your organization's licensing.

Method 1: Live transcription during recording

The simplest way to get a transcript is to enable it while recording:

1. Start or join your Teams meeting

2. In your meeting controls, select More actions (...)

3. Choose Record and transcribe

4. Select Start recording

When you do this, Teams will simultaneously record the meeting and generate a live transcript. Meeting participants will see a notification that recording and transcription have started.

This feature requires appropriate licensing (Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, E5, etc.) and your IT admin must have enabled recording capabilities for your account.

Method 2: Review and download the transcript after recording

After your meeting ends:

1. Locate your recording in the meeting chat or channel

2. Open the recording

3. The transcript should appear alongside the video (if transcription was enabled)

4. You can download the transcript file for editing or sharing

Limitations of native Teams transcription

While convenient, Teams' built-in transcription has some drawbacks:

Accuracy issues: May struggle with technical terms, multiple speakers, or accents.

Basic formatting: Limited organization of the transcript content.

No automated summaries: Doesn't highlight key points or create action items.

Language limitations: Support varies based on your license and region.

Using Circleback for enhanced Microsoft Teams transcription

For teams needing more advanced transcription capabilities, Circleback offers a solution designed to work with Microsoft Teams recordings.

Benefits of using Circleback for Teams transcriptions

Circleback provides advantages over native Teams transcription:

Superior accuracy: Advanced AI captures technical terms and identifies different speakers.

Organized notes: Automatically creates structured, readable meeting notes.

Automated action items: Extracts and assigns action items to specific team members.

Multilingual support: Transcribes over 100 languages.

Searchable archive: Find any moment from any meeting using AI-powered search.

How to transcribe Teams recordings with Circleback

Setup process:

1. Create an account: Sign up at circleback.ai (free trial available)

2. Connect your calendar: Integrate with Microsoft 365/Outlook

3. Enable the Circleback Teams integration: Follow the setup prompts

For scheduled meetings:

Circleback can automatically join your scheduled Teams meetings:

1. Schedule your meeting as usual in Teams

2. Circleback will join as a participant

3. The recording and transcription will begin automatically

4. After the meeting, you'll receive organized notes, action items, and a full transcript

For impromptu or in-person meetings:

For meetings not on your calendar or in-person discussions:

1. Download and install the Circleback desktop app from circleback.ai/desktop

2. When in a meeting, open the app and select "Start Recording"

3. Choose to record system audio and/or screen

4. Circleback will process the recording and generate a transcript and notes

Practical example: Marketing team weekly update

Let's see how this works in a real-world scenario:

Sarah is a marketing manager who holds weekly team updates via Microsoft Teams. Previously, she would spend hours writing up notes after each meeting, often missing key details or action items.

After setting up Circleback with her Teams account, the process changed:

1. Sarah scheduled her usual "Marketing Weekly Update" meeting in Teams

2. When the meeting began, Circleback joined automatically

3. During the meeting, the team discussed campaign results, budget allocations, and upcoming initiatives

4. After the meeting ended, Sarah received an email with a link to her Circleback dashboard

5. The dashboard contained:

   • A complete transcript of the meeting

   • Organized meeting notes highlighting key decisions

   • A list of action items automatically assigned to team members

   • Budget figures extracted and highlighted ($15,000 allocated for the Q4 campaign)

Sarah sent the notes to her team and uploaded the action items to their project management system—all without spending time on manual documentation.

Best practices for team meeting transcriptions

To get the most from your Microsoft Teams transcriptions:

1. Inform participants: Let everyone know the meeting will be recorded and transcribed

2. Speak clearly: Encourage participants to speak at a reasonable pace and avoid talking over each other

3. Identify speakers: Have participants state their name before speaking in larger meetings

4. Review transcripts: Quickly review and correct any errors after the meeting

5. Share appropriately: Distribute transcripts only to those who need them

Privacy and security considerations

When transcribing meetings, keep these important considerations in mind:

Participant consent: Depending on your location, you may need everyone's permission to record.

Sensitive information: Be mindful of discussing confidential information that will be transcribed.

Data storage: Understand where and how long transcripts are stored.

Sharing permissions: Control who has access to view or download transcripts.

With Circleback, your meeting data is kept private and secure with enterprise-grade security standards. Transcripts are not used to train AI models without your explicit permission.