Transcribe Microsoft Teams Meetings in Real Time

Kalima captures the sound playing on your computer and turns Teams calls into a live, speaker-separated transcript. No bot joins the call and nothing changes in your tenant.

Live translation and AI summaries use the same audio. Qualifying summaries start automatically after processing finishes.

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Transcribe Teams locally, without a bot

Built-in Teams transcription depends on your tenant settings and license tier. Most third-party tools go further: they install an app in your tenant or join the call as a visible participant. Kalima does neither. It runs next to Teams on your computer and transcribes the sound it plays.

Capture happens locally through the Kalima desktop app, so internal standups, external client reviews, and large all-hands calls all work the same way. You can start or stop at any point in the meeting.

Why transcribing Teams calls is harder than it looks

Teams has a built-in transcription feature, but in practice most people hit the same walls before the transcript is actually useful.

Built-in transcription depends on tenant settings

Built-in Teams transcription depends on your tenant settings and licensing tier. If an admin has not enabled it, or if you are a guest on someone else's tenant, you may have no built-in transcript at all.

The transcript lands after the call

Even when native transcription is available, it only appears once the meeting ends. There is no live record to read or refer back to while the conversation is still happening.

Guests are left out of the host's transcript

When you join as an external guest, you are often excluded from the host organization's transcription, even though you may be the person who most needs a record of the call.

Mixed-language calls become a single-language record

When a mostly English call has people switching to German, Spanish, or another language, a single-language transcript tends to drop or garble the parts it cannot follow.

How to transcribe a Teams meeting with Kalima

The process is the same whether you host the meeting or join as a guest. Let Kalima capture the sound playing on your computer, then follow the transcript as it appears.

Start capture before the call

Open the Kalima desktop app and start a live session. Kalima captures your system audio, so it hears everyone on the Teams call through your speakers or headset, not just your own microphone.

Join your Teams meeting as usual

Join the call from the Teams desktop client or the web. Kalima runs alongside it and transcribes the audio in real time, so nothing about the meeting itself has to change.

Watch the transcript build live

Speech appears with speaker labels as people talk. Turn on live translation and a call that mixes languages stays readable.

Get notes the moment you stop

When a meeting lasts at least five minutes and contains enough speech, Kalima starts an AI summary with decisions and action items automatically after processing finishes. You can also generate one manually and export the full transcript.

Illustration of two colleagues at a desk: a microphone picks up their conversation, a laptop shows four remote participants, and a transcript card with speaker dots and a summary card lie in front of them

What you get from bot-free Teams transcription

Capturing audio locally, instead of routing through a Teams integration, changes what you can transcribe and who controls the record.

Works whether you host or join as a guest

Kalima captures your system audio instead of connecting to Teams, so there is no Teams app to install, neither in your tenant nor in the host's.

A live, speaker-labeled record during the call

Read who said what as the meeting happens. On long calls, that lets you refer back to a point made earlier instead of waiting for a post-call transcript.

No extra participant in the meeting

Nothing joins the call and no app is added to Teams. Because Kalima runs on your computer, tell the other participants yourself that you are transcribing.

Translation and summaries on the same stream

Live translation and the AI summary run on the audio Kalima already captured. There is no second tool to configure and no separate service to pay for.

Feature fit for Microsoft Teams meetings

The jobs Teams users usually need a transcript for, and how Kalima covers each one.

What you needHow Kalima helpsOutcome

Transcribe without installing a Teams appLocal system-audio capture via the desktop appA full transcript on any call, whether you host it or join as a guest

Know who said what in a busy callReal-time speaker diarization with custom speaker namesA speaker-labeled record you can search and share right after the call

Follow a call where people switch languagesLive translation across 60+ languagesA readable record even when the meeting mixes English, German, Spanish, or other languages

Send decisions and action items quicklyAI summary and exportA ready-to-send follow-up the moment you stop the session

Before you record

Kalima runs on your own device, so nobody in the meeting sees it. That is exactly why you should announce it: tell everyone before you start and ask for their consent. If you use Kalima at work, agree on it with your data protection officer and, where there is one, your works council first.

Microsoft Teams transcription questions

Common questions about transcribing Teams meetings with Kalima.

No. The desktop app captures the sound playing on your computer. It does not connect to a Teams API or install anything in your tenant. Whether you may record and transcribe meetings is still up to your company's rules, so check with your IT or data protection team first.

Yes. Kalima captures your system audio rather than integrating with Teams, so it works the same way whether you host the call or join as an external guest on another organization's tenant.

No. Kalima runs on your desktop alongside Teams and captures the sound playing on your computer, so nothing new appears in the Teams participant list.

Yes. Kalima detects language switches in the audio, and you can enable live translation to keep the transcript readable when people change languages during the call.

Transcribe your next Teams meeting

Start for free and get a live, speaker-labeled transcript of your next Teams call, with no bot and no changes to your tenant settings.

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