We’ve all been there – the smile and nod, hoping your coworker didn’t just say that their dog died. With the increase of Zoom calls during the coronavirus era, the struggle to hear has been greater than ever. But there may be a solution.

Otter.ai is partnering with Zoom

A company called Otter.ai is partnering with Zoom to create real-time closed captions. If you have a Zoom for Otter for Business account or a Zoom Pro account, Zoom and Otter Live Notes work together to display any spoken words as captions at the bottom of the screen. The live captions will also be transcribed in Otter Live Notes, allowing you to refer back to any important points after the conclusion of the meeting.

Sam Liang, CEO and founder of Otter.ai, stated:

By adding this new feature, Otter.ai removes the significant problem of miscommunication from remote work, heightening organizations’ productivity and efficiency.

Pros and cons

The development will also be used to increase accessibility in the workplace for individuals who have hearing loss or speak English as a second language. But it will no doubt come in handy for those of us who have coworkers that mumble, too.

The one drawback is that the service is not available on Zoom Basic – so anyone who is currently using the free version will have to splurge if they want to be able to read captions.