MC1104311 - Microsoft Teams: Usability and privacy improvements for live captions and transcripts in meetings

We’ve made several usability improvements to enhance live captions and live transcripts in Microsoft Teams — making meetings more intuitive, less distracting, and more privacy-conscious.

First, live captions will be scrollable, allowing users to review the meeting conversation without interrupting the live view. To help protect sensitive content and support compliance with data handling policies, copying text from live captions is now disabled by default. This ensures captions remain a real-time experience, reducing the risk of content being copied and shared out of context.

Second, the Live transcript panel will no longer open automatically for the user who starts recording, which also triggers transcription in the background. Before this rollout, this panel only auto-opens for the person who initiates recording or transcription — not for other participants — but this can be distracting and isn’t always relevant to the user's intent. After this rollout, the Live transcript panel will remain closed unless manually opened or the user explicitly starts transcription. This gives users more control over their meeting layout and helps avoid unnecessary screen changes during important discussions.

Third, when transcription is enabled, users who attempt to open the Live transcript panel will now see a banner suggesting they switch to live captions instead. This helps guide users to the most appropriate feature for following the conversation in real time, improving comprehension and reducing confusion.

This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for Mac desktop, and Teams for the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 495454.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early July 2025 and expect to complete by mid-July 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-July 2025 and expect to complete by late July 2025.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out late July 2025 and expect to complete by early August 2025.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early August 2025 and expect to complete by mid-August 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

These updates improve usability, privacy, and accessibility in Teams meetings. Users gain more flexibility with captions and fewer disruptions from auto-opening panels. Disabling caption copying supports compliance by minimizing accidental data sharing. The in-product banner helps guide users to the best experience for real-time engagement.

The message "You can't copy the selected text" will appear if a user tries to copy live captions after this rollout:

What you need to do to prepare:

No admin action is required. This feature has no admin controls. These changes will roll out automatically and will be available by default. To support awareness and adoption:

• Inform users about scrollable captions and changes to the Live transcript panel.
• Update training materials, if applicable.
• If your organization previously relied on copying captions, note that live transcripts remain the official source of meeting content.

Learn more

• Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings - Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)
• Manage chat for sensitive Teams meetings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated to remove live caption information)

Compliance considerations:

These changes do not alter how customer data is stored or processed. However, disabling caption copying by default helps protect sensitive content during meetings and supports compliance with internal policies. Live transcripts are unaffected and remain accessible via standard Microsoft 365 compliance tools (such as Microsoft Purview eDiscovery, Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, and DLP retention).