M365 Changelog: (Updated) On-Demand Caption and Transcript Generation

MC315649 – Updated May 05, 2022: Microsoft has updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

This new feature will enable users, with edit permission to a video stored in OneDrive for Business or a SharePoint document library, to generate a transcript in English to be displayed as closed captions or within the transcript pane.

Any viewer of the video with a transcript will be able to display it as closed captions or as a transcript.

For reference, Microsoft had previously communicated a delay to this rollout (MC293774 – December 2021).

Note: Not all end users will receive this feature at the same time within your tenants.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 85552.

When will this happen:

Microsoft expects this to begin rolling out in mid-March (previously early April) and expects to complete the rollout by mid-May (previously late April).

How will this affect your organization

A user who does not have a transcript but has edit permission on a video will be able to navigate to Media Settings in the player and use the Transcript and captions setting to generate a transcript in English. Once the transcript has been generated, the user can refresh the page to see the file and turn on Transcript and captions to display the file as either closed captions or a transcript for their video.

• Users will also be able to delete the caption file.
• Any viewer will be able to enable captions during playback via the Closed Captionsbutton.
• Any viewer will be able view the generated transcript within the transcript pane.

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Caption/transcript files may take a while to generate depending on the length of the video. You can use the Refresh button to check If it has finished yet.

What you need to do to prepare

You might want to notify your users about this new capability and update your training and documentation as appropriate.