- Bilingual transcript
- Built for Google Meet
Keep both languages of a Google Meet call, side by side
MeetVoice stores the line as it was spoken and the translation next to it, so the wording can still be checked weeks later by somebody who reads either language.
The trial gives you 30 minutes of live translation, no payment card required.
26 languages, any pair, chosen before you join.
The call this page was written for
Your localisation team reviews copy with a Japanese partner every fortnight, and the arguments that matter are about wording. A translated-only record settles nothing, because the question is always what the original sentence actually said. MeetVoice keeps both versions of every line, so the next reviewer can see the Japanese and the English together instead of trusting one of them.
What this looks like during the call
Live transcript
ESENA two-column record in which every line keeps the language it was spoken in.
El proyecto piloto duró dos semanas más, así que las cifras finales solo llegan el jueves.
The pilot project ran two weeks longer, so the final numbers only land on Thursday.
Entonces movamos la revisión al viernes por la mañana. Hoy aviso al cliente.
Then let's move the review to Friday morning. I'll let the client know today.
Me sirve. Mándame el borrador la noche anterior, con el desglose de costes.
Works for me. Send me the draft the evening before, with the cost breakdown.
Action items
Built for Google Meet- Move the review to Friday morning
- Tell the client today that the numbers land Thursday
- Send the draft with the cost breakdown on Thursday evening
How the three options compare
What Google Meet does on its own
Google Meet lets each participant choose their own caption language, which is useful in the moment and useless afterwards: only one language is ever on screen at a time, and none of it is written to a file you can reopen.
Google Meet can show captions and, for a limited set of pairs, translated captions. They are read on screen while the call runs: nothing is spoken back in the other language and nothing is left as a file afterwards.
| What you are comparing | MeetVoice | Google Meet built-in captions | Notetaker bot that joins the call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is the original wording still there afterwards? | Yes — every line keeps the language it was spoken in, alongside its translation. | No — the caption disappears with the call, in whichever language it was shown. | Sometimes — many produce a record in one language and translate it as a separate step. |
| Can somebody check a translation later? | Yes — both versions of the line sit together under the same timestamp. | No — there is nothing left to check. | Only if the vendor keeps the source text as well as the translated one. |
| What formats does the record come in? | PDF with colour coding, SRT for subtitle editors, and plain text. | None. | Vendor-specific, commonly a web page plus one download format. |
| Where is the record stored? | On your computer, in the extension's history, for the last 50 meetings. | Nowhere. | In the vendor's workspace, for as long as their retention policy says. |
How to set it up
MeetVoice is a Chrome extension plus a companion desktop app. The extension reads the Google Meet tab you already have open and the desktop app coordinates the session from your machine, so no extra participant is added to the call.
Step 1Install the extension and the companion app
Add MeetVoice from the Chrome Web Store and install the desktop app on Windows or Apple Silicon macOS. Everything is processed through the desktop app rather than inside the meeting.
Step 2Choose which language sits in which column
Set the language people will speak and the language you want beside it. The panel colours each line by its source language, so the two columns stay readable when several people talk in turn.
Step 3Export both columns at the end
Stop the session and export. The PDF keeps the colour coding, the SRT carries the timings from the call, and the plain text version is the one to paste into a ticket. The last 50 meetings remain in history.
What usually goes wrong
- Whatever Google Meet shows you stays inside the call window: nothing is spoken back in the other language, and nothing is left to read once the call ends.
- A translated-only record cannot be audited, because the sentence it was translated from is gone.
- Two separate files, one per language, drift apart the moment anybody edits either of them.
Why this holds up in a real call
- The spoken line is never overwritten — the translation is stored next to it, not instead of it.
- The spoken line is preserved with its own speaker label and timestamp, and the translation is attached to it rather than swapped in.
- Both columns travel together in the export, so the SRT for a subtitle editor and the PDF for the client come from one source.
Questions people ask before installing
Does keeping both languages slow the call down?
No. The spoken line and its translation are written as they are produced, so keeping both is a storage decision rather than an extra processing step you have to wait for.
Can I use the export in a subtitle editor?
Yes. The SRT export carries the timings from the call, which is what a subtitle editor needs. The PDF is the version to send to a client, and plain text is the version to paste into a ticket.
What happens when several people speak different languages?
Multilingual mode handles up to four participant languages in one call, listens to incoming speech only, and runs on your own speech-to-text API key. Each line is tagged with the language it came from and with the speaker MeetVoice heard, so the record stays readable instead of becoming one undifferentiated block.
Is any of this uploaded and kept?
Audio is processed in transit and is not stored on our side. The bilingual record itself lives in your extension's history on your own machine, and removing the extension removes that local history too.
Keep the original wording and the translation side by side, so a sentence can still be checked later.
The trial gives you 30 minutes of live translation, no payment card required.
Page last reviewed