What do I need real-time translation in Zoom or Teams for?
Typical uses are:
- Staff meetings and town halls with international teams
- Webinars and online training for customers in several countries
- Lectures and seminars with international students
- Church services and conferences that are also streamed
- Hybrid events where one part of the audience attends on site and another online
In the past, that meant booking simultaneous interpreters. Today you can do without: AI live translation runs via a link or QR code on people’s own phones.
How live translation works with Zoom and Teams
- Feed in the audio: The translation works best on the laptop of the host or organiser. That way the system gets the cleanest audio straight from the meeting.
- Choose languages: In the Dashboard you set which languages to translate into. With Streamlingo, more than 80 languages are available.
- Share the link or QR code: Participants open the listener link in their browser. They don’t have to install an app.
- Listen or read along: Everyone chooses their language and hears the translation a good three seconds later (3.1 seconds with Streamlingo 2.0) or reads the live captions.
What if the speaker is only joining online?
Then it isn’t the microphone but the audio from Zoom or Teams that is fed into the translation. This works, for example, via a virtual audio cable on the organiser’s computer. That way the speaker’s audio lands directly in the live translation, without anyone having to hold a microphone up to a loudspeaker.
Captions directly in the stream
Besides the audio, the translations can also be laid directly over the video as captions. That is ideal for livestreams, webinars and big screens on site: viewers see the translation without having to look at their phones.
4 tips for smooth translation in an online meeting
- Mute Zoom on the listeners’ side: Anyone listening to the translation mutes the original audio in the meeting, otherwise two audio tracks play at the same time.
- Stable internet connection: Ideally over an Ethernet cable on the organiser’s side.
- Use a fixed source language: If the speaker’s language is known in advance, it keeps the translator voice consistent.
- Test beforehand: A short trial run shows whether the audio and languages work.
Frequently asked questions
Does live translation also work with Google Meet or other platforms? Yes. All that matters is that the speaker’s audio is fed into the translation. The platform itself plays no role.
Do participants need their own app? No. The listener link runs in the browser on any smartphone, tablet or laptop.
What does it cost to translate an online meeting? Billing is per hour and language, and only while someone is actually listening in a language. Pauses cost nothing. There is a free plan. Subscriptions start at €110 a month for businesses and at €55 for churches and non-profit organisations, each incl. VAT. You’ll find all the details on our pricing page.
With live translation, Zoom meetings, Teams events and webinars become multilingual in a few minutes: without interpreters, without a booth, without extra hardware.
