Google Meet Adopts Zoom Feature

Mar, 2021 - By WMR

Google Meet enables the chrome extension of Otter.ai which is available in Zoom, iOS, Web, and Android.

Formerly known as Hangouts Meet, the Google Meet revealed on January 25, 2021 that the company partnered with the real-time voice transcription service, Otter.ai. By using machine learning and artificial intelligence, Otter.ai transcripts a speech into a text-format. It uses the Otter software to display the captions for live streaming video and audio platforms. Post-COVID-19 outbreak, the number of virtual meetings and conferences have increased drastically. The extension of Otter.ai will provide subtitles to the live meetings. This feature will eradicate the need of taking notes or recording the session for its users. Also, it will help the users in reviewing the important points of the meeting.

This live transcription feature of Otter.ai was previously only available for the users of Zoom app. Now, the Zoom charges US$ 20/month for the premium users after one month of free trial. The Google Meet users will have to download the Google Chrome extension in the top right corner of the app to access the Otter transcription services. After installing the extension, users can use other Otter features such as editing the transcripts and tagging other users within it.

Otter.ai has been increasing its collaborations for video meeting platforms with its increasing demand since the pandemic breakout. The transcriber has three options for the users i.e. business, pro, and basic. Basic users can transcribe more than 10 hours of meeting per month while the business and pro members have to pay charges for the service. The transcription of the meetings will be automatically saved into the user’s account by Otter. The users can choose any meeting transcription for sharing with others, export it as audio or text, and delete it.

Along with the increasing demand for virtual conferencing, Otter.ai is set to collaborate with many more platforms in the future.