Live Transcription

Kolab can transcribe your sessions and turn them into more than a document—a speaker-attributed transcript, an AI-written summary, and even a hand-drawn recap image, all without extra work from you.

Quick links: Starting Transcription | AI Summaries | Visual Recap | Watching the Live Transcript

Note: Transcription is available to hosts and facilitators only. Participants are automatically notified when transcription is active.

How It Works

Transcription lives in the Session Capture panel, alongside video recording—the two run independently, so you can start transcription on its own, add recording later, or the other way around.

1. A facilitator opens Session Capture from More settings (⋯) in the bottom-left → Capture
2. They turn on Transcribe audio and click the start button
3. Kolab dispatches a transcription agent that listens to the session's main conversation
4. Everyone in the space sees a notice that the space is being transcribed, plus a TXN indicator in the top-right status chip
5. When the facilitator stops transcription, the audio is processed into a transcript and an AI summary

Learn more: Recording a Session covers starting, stopping, and the shared Session Capture panel—including how the start button's label changes based on what you toggle on.

Starting Transcription

1. Click the More settings menu (⋯) in the bottom-left
2. Click Capture → Session Capture
3. Turn on Transcribe audio (leave Record video off if you only want a transcript)
4. Click Start Transcription

All participants in the space see a notification: "This space is now being transcribed."

Only one transcription session can be active per space at a time.

Tip: Kolab notifies participants automatically, but it's good practice to mention it yourself at the start: "This session is being transcribed—the transcript will be available afterward."

Stopping Transcription

Transcription has its own lane and its own Stop button in Session Capture, independent of recording.

1. Open More settings (⋯) → Capture → Session Capture
2. Click Stop in the Transcription lane

If recording is also running, stopping transcription doesn't affect it. When both are active, a Stop everything link below the two lanes ends them together.

After stopping, the transcript enters a Processing state while Kolab identifies speakers and generates the document. This can take a few minutes depending on session length.

What Gets Captured

By default, transcription covers your space's main conversation only. Muted audio, chat messages, and canvas content are never included.

Transcription follows the main conversation and automatically skips zone and breakout audio, picking back up once people return to the main space.

Capture Side Conversations

Facilitators can opt in to a wider capture. In space settings, spaces with zone-based audio show a Capture side conversations toggle (off by default). Turn it on, and transcription also captures what's said inside zones and breakouts—not just the main room.

Note: When this toggle is on, Kolab updates the "this space is being transcribed" notice to say zone conversations are included too, so nobody having a side conversation is caught unaware.

Downloading Transcripts

Once processing is complete, find your transcript in Past Sessions inside Session Capture:

1. Open More settings (⋯) → Capture → Session Capture
2. Find your transcript in Past Sessions (labeled by number and completion time)
3. Choose DOCX or Markdown (.md)

Both formats open with the AI-generated summary as the first section, followed by:

• Session title, date, and duration
• A list of speakers
• The full transcript, with each passage labeled by who was speaking
• Audio mode change markers (e.g., when breakout rooms were active)

Prefer to read it in Kolab? Click View on the session to open the transcript directly.

Note: If a session also has a recording, you'll see an MP4 button alongside it—see Recording a Session.

Looking for a transcript from another space? The Captures dashboard collects every recording, transcript, and summary across your team's spaces.

AI Summaries

For sessions long enough to be worth summarizing, Kolab automatically writes a Markdown summary once the transcript finishes processing—very short sessions skip this step.

The summary isn't a rigid, one-size-fits-all template. Kolab shapes it to the kind of session it was—a workshop gets different treatment than a retro, a brainstorm different from a training.

Find it on the session's card in Past Sessions:

1. Look for the ✨ row on the card
2. It shows a one-line preview
3. Click to expand the full summary
4. Use Copy or Download to grab it

Visual Recap

From an expanded summary, generate a graphic recording—a hand-drawn-style illustration that recaps the session visually, created by AI.

1. Expand the summary on a Past Sessions card
2. Generate a visual recap from the expanded summary
3. Kolab creates a hand-drawn-style image summarizing the session

It's private until you share it. Only the facilitator who generated the image can see it—nobody else in the space gets a preview. Like the result? Click Add to board to place it on the canvas for everyone. Not quite right? Regenerate for another attempt, or discard it.

Every image you generate is saved to a small history, so you can come back later to revisit, place, or download a past recap. You'll find that history both in the Session Capture panel and in the Captures dashboard.

Watching the Live Transcript

While a session is being transcribed, facilitators can open a live-updating view of what's being said.

1. Open Session Capture
2. Click View live transcript

The panel fills in as people talk. If you've scrolled up to review something earlier, a new lines indicator lets you jump back to the latest text with one click. You can also:

• Search within the transcript to find a specific moment
• See an estimated speaking-time breakdown per person (an estimate, not a precise measurement)

Note: The live transcript panel is facilitator/host-only for now.

This isn't just for live sessions. Search and the speaking-time breakdown work exactly the same way when you open a transcript after the fact—click View on a Past Sessions card, or open one from the Captures dashboard. It's the same transcript viewer either way; "live" just means it's still filling in as people talk.

Good to know: Search looks through whatever portion of the transcript is currently loaded. For a long session, you may need to scroll to load more before a search turns up a match from later in the conversation.

Who Can Use Transcription

Participants cannot start, stop, download, or view the live transcript. They are notified when transcription begins.

Transcription Quality

What Affects Accuracy

Tips for Better Transcripts

Before your session:

• Ensure participants have decent microphones
• Run System Check to verify audio quality
• Enable noise cancellation

During your session:

• Encourage one person to speak at a time
• Ask speakers to unmute before speaking
• Keep a moderate pace for important points

Troubleshooting

"I can't find the transcription option"

• Transcription lives inside Capture → Session Capture in the More settings menu (⋯, bottom-left)
• Only hosts and facilitators see Session Capture
• Check that you have host or facilitator permissions for the space

"Transcription won't start"

• Check whether another transcription session is already active—only one at a time per space
• Confirm you have host or facilitator permissions for the space

"Transcript is stuck on Processing"

• Processing can take several minutes for longer sessions
• If it's been more than 10 minutes, there may have been an error—check for an error status

"Transcript shows an error"

• This usually means the audio couldn't be processed—check that participants were unmuted and audio was working during the session
• Try running another transcription session with better audio conditions

"Speaker names are wrong"

• Speaker identification is automatic and may occasionally misattribute speech
• Having one person speak at a time significantly improves accuracy
• The downloaded document may need minor manual corrections

Related Guides

• Recording a Session - Capture video alongside your transcript
• Captures Dashboard - Every recording and transcript across your team
• Live Captions - Real-time captions during the session
• Setting Up Audio & Video - Audio quality basics
• Visual Effects & Audio Quality - Noise cancellation
• System Check - Verify your setup