Using Language Interpretation in your meeting or webinar in zoom App
Interpreters can now participate in meetings and webinars by enabling Language Interpretation. During a Zoom session or in the web portal, the host can select up to 20 members as interpreters.
The host can enable the interpretation feature before the meeting or webinar begins, allowing interpreters to provide their own audio channels for the language they are translating into. Additionally, attendees have the option to hear the original audio in a lower volume in their chosen language instead of hearing the translated audio in their own language.
Translations are not recorded in cloud recordings of interpretation sessions. In local recordings, the person recording can hear any audio that is played, but multiple audio channels will not be recorded.
Notes:
- Personal Meeting ID (PMI) cannot be used for language interpretation. Choose the option Generate Automatically for the Meeting ID in order to enable language interpretation.
- An instant meeting cannot take advantage of this feature, as it must be enabled when scheduling a meeting.
- You must also assign a panelist to be a language interpreter if you are hosting a webinar.
Prerequisites for using Language Interpretation
- Business, Education, or Enterprise account; or a Pro account with the Zoom Webinar add-on plan
- Meeting with an automatically generated meeting ID
- Zoom desktop client
- Windows: 5.2.1 (44052.0816) or higher
- macOS: 5.2.1 (44040.0816) or higher
- Zoom mobile app
- Android: 5.2.1 (44042.0816) or higher
- iOS: 5.2.1 (44038.0816) or higher
Notes:
- For this feature to be enabled, contact Zoom Support. You can expect the feature to be enabled within an hour after contacting support.
- Zoom Webinar add-ons are required to access this feature. Get more information about plan features.
- You cannot initiate or manage language interpretation from the Zoom mobile app. If a participant joins a meeting using the Zoom Mobile app, he or she is only able to listen to and view interpreting audio channels.
- Only the main session of a meeting can be interpreted in foreign languages, not breakout rooms.
How to enable or disable Language Interpretation
Note:
Zoom Support can enable this feature for you if you do not have it already.
Account
Language Interpretation can be enabled or disabled for all users in a given account by following these steps:
- Zoom allows you to edit account settings if you are logged in as an admin.
- Under Account Management, go to Account Settings.
- Select Meetings.
- To enable or disable language interpretation, click the Language Interpretation toggle under In Meeting (Advanced).
- Verify the change by selecting Enable or Disable in a verification dialog.
- Click the lock icon, and then click Lock to confirm the setting if you wish to make this setting mandatory for all users in your account.
- If you wish to make this setting mandatory by default, select the Allow language interpretation by default check box.
By default, all scheduled meetings will have language interpretation enabled.
Group
Language Interpretation can be enabled or disabled for a group of users as follows:
- Register as an administrator with the privilege of editing groups in the Zoom web portal.
- Click on Settings, then click on Groups.
- Browse through the list of available groups.
- Click on Meetings.
- To enable or disable Language Interpretation, turn on the toggle under In Meeting (Advanced).
- Please select Enable or Disable on the verification dialog box to verify the change.
Note: - In the case of grayed out options, the account level has locked them and they cannot be altered.
- Click the lock icon, and then click Lock to confirm that this setting is mandatory for all group members.
- You can also choose to enable language interpretation by default by selecting the checkbox.
If Language Interpretation is selected as a default setting on the group level, it will be active for all meetings scheduled on that level.
User
Language Interpretation can be enabled or disabled individually for your own use:
- Join the Zoom web portal by logging into your account.
- Click the Settings link in the navigation panel.
- Select Meetings from the list.
- You can enable or disable the Language Interpretation feature by selecting the toggle under the In Meeting (Advanced) menu.
- You can verify the change by clicking Enable or Disable if you receive a verification dialog box.
Note: - Greyed out options are locked either at the account or group level. Please contact Zoom support.
- Tick the checkbox Enable language interpretation by default by clicking the button.
As a default setting for all scheduled meetings, Language Interpretation will be enabled by default, so that it will be enabled by default for all users.
Add and select languages after enabling Language Interpretation
Depending on which language interpretation settings you have enabled for your account, user, or group, you can select it or add more languages.
- If you enable this feature, you will be able to choose from one of these nine languages:
- English
- Chinese
- Japanese
- German
- French
- Russian
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Korean
- Add more languages by selecting the plus sign (+).
- Select the language you wish to use and type the name in.
- Click on the drop-down menu to choose the language.
- Then click Add.
Your list of languages will now include that language.
Note: - You can add any number of languages, but you can only use them at the same time in meetings or webinars.
How to add language interpreters to meetings or webinars
- Login to the Zoom web portal by following the link below.
- You will then be taken to the Meetings section of the Zoom web portal.
- From here you can schedule meetings.
- To generate an automatic meeting ID, select Generate Automatically next to Meeting ID. If language interpretation is required, this setting must be activated.
- You can do this by choosing the box Enable language interpretation next to Interpretation.
Note: - If you previously enabled language interpretation at the account, group, or user level, this option will already be selected as a default setting for all scheduled meetings.
- The interpreter’s contact details should be included.
You can create audio channels for each language you select for your interpreters in your meeting, but not all of these channels must be used.
Note: - Sign in to the interpreters’ accounts using the chosen email addresses. The host can manually assign them to be the interpreter in the meeting or webinar. This is because they aren’t signed in with that email address when joining the meeting or webinar.
- Click Save.
- Click Edit to change the interpreter list.
- Click + Add Interpreter to add more interpreters. Type in the information for each interpreter.
- Please use the email icon next to the interpreter’s name if you want to resend the invitation via email.
- Click the ellipsis next to the interpreter’s name if you would like to copy the invitation. Once you have done this, select Copy Invitation.
- The interpreter will be removed from your invitation. To remove the interpreter, click on the ellipses next to their names. From there, select Deleting This Interpreter from the list.
- Click Save when you are finished.
Note:
As with language interpretation for webinars, this process is similar. Follow Steps 3-6 to schedule a webinar after clicking Webinars in the navigation menu.
How to start Language Interpretation in meetings or webinars
Note:
The Zoom mobile app cannot be used to initiate or manage language interpretation. The Zoom mobile app only enables participants to view interpreted text and listen to interpretation audio channels.
- Log into Zoom on your desktop.
- Join or start a meeting.
- Click the Interpretation icon inside the meeting controls once the meeting has kicked off. This menu lets you add and remove interpreters as needed.
- To begin interpreting, click Start.
A message will be displayed to the interpreters after the host clicks Start.
Note:Sign in to the account associated with the chosen email address to access the pre-assigned interpreters. The host will be able to assign them the role of interpreter in the meeting. However, unless they signed in with that email address, they won’t be recognized as interpreters.
- In the meeting controls, interpreters and attendees can now select a language channel by selecting Interpretation.
- In order to translate the meeting, the interpreter will hear the original audio. The interpreters are assigned to specific languages. All original audio and translated audio can be heard at a lower volume on a language channel.
- A host must choose Interpretation in the meeting controls to end the interpretation session(s).
- The host can stop the Language Interpretation sessions by choosing End when the Language Interpretation window opens.
- To change the interpreter settings during a session, the host can select Manage Language Interpretation.
How to manage your language interpreter role
There is a restriction on the number of language channels that a language interpreter can broadcast to at any given time. As a result, there is no unnecessary language crossover and confusion is avoided. The audio channel of the meeting can be switched from the native audio channel of the meeting to the interpretation audio channel you were assigned for the meeting.
Note:
Computer audio is the only way to join language interpretation. A phone call is not possible.
As soon as you are assigned as a language interpreter, you will see a window letting you know which language you are responsible for:
- Open Zoom on your desktop.
- Assist the host by acting as an interpreter in a meeting.
- When you are assigned a language to interpret, click OK.
How to switch audio channels as an interpreter and use interpretation relay
During the meeting, you can switch between audio channels as follows:
- To broadcast to a specific language, select it from the drop-down menu.
- To broadcast in a specific language, select that language from the drop-down menu.
Depending on your preference, you can listen to another interpreter instead of the main audio channel as an interpreter. Interpretation relays are commonly used.
As a result, this allows you to interpret from another available language if you do not understand the main language channel. Several different languages can be spoken in a single channel, for example, French can be understood but English cannot. It would be much easier if instead of listening to the French translation channel you listened to the interpretation channel for that language.
You can change the language interpretation channel of your incoming audio feed by using the following steps:
- Click on the drop-down menu next to Listening in.
- From the list of audio channels that appear, select one you wish to listen to.
The main audio channel is selected by default.
Note: Version 5.9.6 or higher is required for the interpretation relay.
How to listen to Language Interpretation
Windows | macOS
- To interpret your meeting or webinar, click on the Interpretation button.
- Then select your preferred language.
- Click Mute Original Audio to listen only to the interpreted language.
Notes:
- In order to participate in the meeting, you must connect via computer audio/VoIP. Dial-in audio and call-me-phone audio cannot be used to listen to language interpretation.
- Participants can unmute their audio and speak in the main audio channel after joining a language channel.
Android | iOS
- The ellipses in the meeting controls.
- Click on Interpretation in Languages.
- You’ll find the option on the left hand side.
- You can choose to mute the original audio by tapping the toggle.
- Tap Done to end the process.
Notes:
- When you use the dial-in function or the call me phone feature, you cannot listen to language interpretation.
- If you unmute your audio and speak, you can broadcast back into the main audio channel if you join a language channel.