Lingvoo in Zoom

In Zoom, Lingvoo joins a regular meeting as a participant. You don’t need a Zoom app: you paste the meeting link, someone in the call admits the translator, 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. This guide is about Zoom meetings; webinars work differently and are covered at the end.

Pick the correct link

Lingvoo needs the link that joins the meeting itself: a zoom.us address, the one Zoom gives you when you copy the invitation. Paste all of it, including what comes after the question mark: that is where the passcode lives, and a link cut down to just the meeting number won’t join.

Open the call first, then add the translator

1. Start the Zoom meeting, or ask the host to. If the meeting hasn’t started, there is nobody to admit a participant.
2. Paste the Zoom 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 if there is a waiting room. The host sees the usual prompt and clicks admit, and a co-host can do it too. With no waiting room, the translator joins right away.
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 Zoom chat on its own (a brief message in English), 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.

Settings to look at

• Waiting room. With a waiting room on, you don’t need to change anything; just be ready to admit the translator in the first few seconds of the call, or ask a co-host to watch for it.
• Join before host. If participants can’t join before the host, start the meeting before you send Lingvoo in.
• Recording permission. When the translator joins, Zoom asks the host to let it record. The translator needs this permission to work; no recording is kept once the call ends.
• Passcodes. Leave the invitation link whole. A shortened link without its passcode is the most frequent reason a join fails.
• Recurring meetings. A recurring Zoom meeting uses the same link each time, so pasting it again works next week too.
• 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.

Webinars and meetings that need registration

Zoom webinars, and meetings that require registration or a signed-in Zoom account, aren’t supported automatically yet. If you’d like the translator in one of them, write to support@lingvoo.com and we’ll help you get it set up.

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