Lingvoo in Microsoft Teams

In Microsoft Teams, Lingvoo joins a regular meeting as a participant. There is no Teams app to add: you paste the meeting link, someone in the call admits the translator from the lobby, and from then on each person who speaks is translated while they talk. You hear the translation spoken in the call itself, captions show on the translator’s tile, and anyone who wants can follow on a listener link in a browser.

Pick the correct link

Lingvoo needs the join link from the meeting invitation. Teams has two kinds of address: teams.microsoft.com for work and school accounts, and teams.live.com for personal accounts. Both work. Paste the one in your invitation in full, everything after the question mark included: that part tells Teams which meeting it is, and a link cut down to just the address won’t join.

Open the call first, then add the translator

1. Start the meeting, or ask the organizer to. If the meeting hasn’t started, there is nobody to admit a participant.
2. Paste the Teams link into Lingvoo, choose the languages people will speak (2 to 10, see Choosing languages), and start the session.
3. Keep an eye on the participant list. The translator shows up there like any guest, normally within a few seconds.
4. Let it in from the lobby. Guests stay in the lobby until someone running the meeting admits them, and the translator waits there just the same. One click on the usual prompt lets it in.
5. Pass on the listener link to anyone who would also like captions, or their own language, in a browser tab; people in the call already hear the translation spoken. Once the translator is in, it drops the link into the Teams chat on its own (a brief message in English, pinned), and Lingvoo puts it on your clipboard when the session begins in case you want to paste it. Listeners pick a language; if the status line asks for play, a single tap on Play starts the sound, and the same button pauses it.

Before you start

• Waits usually come from the lobby. Depending on the meeting settings, guests either join right away or wait to be let in. You don’t need to change anything; just be ready to admit the translator in the first few seconds, or ask a colleague in the call to look out for it.
• Use the full invitation link, not a forwarded piece of it. Links pasted into chat sometimes get cut off; copy it from the calendar entry so you know it is complete.
• Languages are set when the session starts. To add one later, stop the session and start a new one, which also gives you a new listener link.
• Use headphones if you listen along. Anyone in the meeting who also opens the listener link should wear headphones: translated speech from laptop speakers gets picked up by the microphone and goes back into the call for everyone.

Using a different platform? It works the same way in Google Meet and Zoom, and Your first call with Lingvoo covers everything from creating an account onward.