Can Others See My Captions and Translation in Google Meet?

Google Meet captions: who can see them?

Google's help page says it plainly: in a meeting, you click "Turn on captions" at the bottom, and captions turn on only for you (Google's help page on captions). Turning them on doesn't switch them on for anyone else, and others don't see that you did it as a caption on their screen.

That is the answer to "does the other person see captions in Google Meet?" Only if they turned captions on for themselves. Everyone chooses for their own screen.

Clozo works the same way. It reads the captions that Meet shows in your browser and displays the original and the translation, one under the other, with the speaker's name, in your Meet tab. Nothing is added to the call itself. So "Google Meet translation only for me" is exactly how it behaves: you see it, the others don't.

How to translate Google Meet captions just for yourself: step by step

You need Google Chrome (version 116 or newer) on a computer and a free Google account. Neither you nor the host needs Google Workspace or a paid Google plan, and it works as a guest in other people's meetings.

1. Add Clozo to Chrome from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Join your call on meet.google.com, as the host or as a guest.
3. Let Clozo turn on the captions. The setting "Turn on captions automatically" is on by default, so Meet's captions start for you without you clicking anything.
4. Agree the first time. Clozo asks before anything is sent. Click "Agree and translate". If you click "Not now", you get captions but no translation.
5. Check the language you translate into. By default Clozo uses the language of your browser. The yellow pill in the call shows the target language, and its menu lets you change it (76 languages are available).
6. Set the caption language in Meet. Meet captions one spoken language at a time. In Meet's caption settings, choose the language people are actually speaking. Clozo detects the spoken language from the caption text, so you only pick the language you want to read.
7. Choose how it looks. In the pill menu or the settings you can show "Both" (original and translation) or "Translation only", pick one of four text sizes, and place the captions at the bottom, at the top, or anywhere you drag them.

The translation appears about a second after each sentence ends. Press Alt+Shift+T to switch translation on or off quickly.

What other participants see (and what to tell them)

The other participants don't see Clozo, your captions or your translation. They also don't see your settings or your transcript. What Clozo sends for translation is only the caption text, with the previous sentence or two as context: no audio, no video, no participant names and no meeting links. Clozo keeps no captions or meeting data on any server.

Even so, tell people that you're using translated captions. Clozo asks you to do this, and it's good manners. A short line at the start is enough: "I'm following with live translated captions, so I may answer a second late." It also gives others a reason to speak clearly and avoid talking over each other, which helps caption quality anyway.

Two things to keep in mind:

• Confidential meetings: Clozo asks users not to use it in confidential meetings, because caption text goes out for translation once you agree.
• Screen sharing: as with anything on your screen, what you share is what others see. Check what you're about to present before you share it.

If you want to know more, there's a short summary on the privacy page.

Alternatives without Clozo

There are other ways to get translated captions in Google Meet. Which one works depends on your Google plan, so check the details on Google's pages.

• Meet's own captions, no translation. If the meeting is held in a language you can read, just click "Turn on captions" (or press c). They are only for you and free for everyone with a personal Google account or a Workspace account.
• Google's translated captions. You turn them on under More options > Settings > Captions > Language of the meeting, then switch on Translated captions and pick the language. According to Google, they are available in Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Google AI Pro for Education, and are "gradually rolling out and may not be available yet". They are not included in plans such as Business Starter, Workspace Individual or Google One plans. Participants can use them if the meeting is organized by a user with an eligible Workspace edition.
• Chrome's Live Caption and Live Translate. In Chrome's settings under Accessibility, Live Caption creates captions for audio in Chrome (Windows and Mac), including video calls. Live Translate translates these captions, and for that the captions are sent to Google.
• Google's speech translation. This translates spoken audio into another language, in a voice like the speaker's. It covers English with Spanish, French, German, Portuguese or Italian (one pair per meeting), needs specific plans and has a 90-minute limit per meeting. It's spoken translation, not captions.

Clozo is useful when you're a guest in someone else's meeting and the organizer doesn't have an eligible plan, or when your language isn't covered by the options above. It translates text captions into your language and keeps the original underneath. If you want a closer look, see how Clozo works.

Common problems and fixes

Nobody else sees my captions, is something wrong?

No, that's how it's meant to work. Captions are per person. If a colleague wants captions, they turn them on in their own Meet window.

The captions and translation make no sense

Most likely Meet's caption language doesn't match the spoken language. If people speak Spanish but Meet's captions are set to English, the captions are gibberish and so is the translation. In the call, go to More options > Settings > Captions > Language of the meeting and choose the language people actually speak. The pill menu also has a help entry called "Captions in the wrong language?".

My own words aren't translated

By default, Clozo shows your own speech but doesn't translate it, which saves minutes. You can turn it on with "Translate my own speech" in the settings.

Translation stopped in the middle of the call

On the free plan you get 15 minutes of translation a day, renewed at midnight UTC. Only minutes in which something is translated count. Clozo warns you with 2 minutes left. When they run out, Meet's captions stay visible in the original language. Pro offers 50 hours a month; see pricing.

I see two caption boxes

By default Clozo's captions replace Meet's own caption box. If you switched that off in the settings, both appear.

A notice says Clozo can't read the captions

If Meet changes its page, Clozo shows a notice in the call. Clozo can receive updated page selectors as data, without an extension update, so check again after a short while.

Honest limits to know before the call

• Clozo works only with Google Meet in Chrome on a computer. It doesn't work in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Meet's mobile apps, Firefox or Safari.
• It translates text, it doesn't speak. There's no audio translation, no recording, no AI summary, and Meet's chat isn't translated.
• Clozo can only translate what Meet captions. Accents, crosstalk, background noise, names and jargon affect the captions, and machine translation can make mistakes. Don't rely on it for decisions where a mistake would be costly.
• Meet captions one language at a time. In a meeting that switches languages, change Meet's caption language.
• The translation comes about a second after a sentence ends, not word by word.
• The live transcript stays in your browser's memory and disappears when Chrome closes. Export as TXT or PDF is part of Pro.

Questions that come up often are answered in the FAQ.

Questions and answers