Live captions & transcripts

Every Stage call is transcribed automatically — you don't have to turn anything on. A "● Transcribing" indicator in the control bar shows it's running, and a small notice on the join screen lets everyone know the meeting may be recorded and transcribed before they enter.

Captions on screen:
• The transcript runs in the background whether or not captions are visible. Tap "CC" in the control bar to show or hide the live caption overlay along the bottom of the call — it's just a display toggle now, not an on/off switch for transcription.

How it works:
• Each person's own device transcribes their own microphone, and the lines combine into one shared transcript for the room. Because everyone transcribes their own clean audio, the result covers the whole meeting — and no audio is sent anywhere extra by the platform to do it.

What the transcript powers:
• Save it: open the gear (More) menu → under "Transcript," tap "Save to Personal Docs" (kept at /me/docs) or "Download .txt."
• Board & member meetings labeled for governance auto-produce minutes from the transcript when the call ends — see "Board & member meeting minutes."
• You can turn a call into a published article from its transcript — see "Write an article from a call."

Transcription relies on the browser's built-in speech recognition, which is best supported in Chrome and Edge. If no one on the call is using one of those browsers, there won't be a transcript to work from.