Can you dictate or voice type in a Zoom meeting?

Zoom does not have a dictation feature that types your own words into the meeting, as far as we found. We found no dictation option in Zoom's support pages or in its AI whitepaper. What you can do is use your computer's built-in dictation while the Zoom window is open. Click the chat box, start your computer's dictation, and speak. The words appear in the chat box, as they would in any other text field.

Zoom's speech-to-text does something different. It listens to the meeting audio and produces captions and transcripts. Your own dictation and Zoom's transcript are separate tools, and the text from one does not appear in the other.

Zoom's speech-to-text listens to the meeting, not to you

Zoom describes its speech-to-text as a platform capability, and captions are one use of it. When captions are on, Zoom's whitepaper says that automatic speech recognition converts spoken audio into caption text that participants see during the meeting ¹. The input is the audio of the whole meeting, not a message you choose to write.

The same whitepaper calls live captions a feature for in-session use. After the session ends, participants cannot retain, save or download captions as a separate post-meeting file ². If you want a copy of what was said, save the transcript during the call.

So if your goal is to write a chat message by voice, captions will not do it. If your goal is a record of the meeting, the captions are not a dictation tool, and you need a saved transcript. Our guide to Zoom, Teams and Google Meet transcription explains which plan and setting produce a saved transcript.

Your computer's dictation works in the Zoom chat box

On a Mac, Apple says that with Dictation you can speak to enter text in any place where you can type ³. The Zoom chat box is a text field, so the same rule applies. You place the insertion point in the chat box first, then start Dictation. On macOS 27, Dictation is turned on in System Settings: choose Keyboard in the sidebar, go to Dictation, turn it on and click Enable ⁴.

On Windows, Microsoft's instructions for Windows 10 say you select a text field and press the Windows logo key + H to open the dictation toolbar ⁵. We have not checked the Windows 11 steps on a PC for this page, so confirm the key on your version before you rely on it.

Check that your language is supported before a meeting. Read the message back before you send it, because a misheard word goes out to everyone in the chat.

Steps for dictating a Zoom chat message on a Mac

1. Join the meeting and open the Chat panel.
2. Click in the chat box so the cursor is blinking there.
3. Press your Dictation shortcut, or press the Microphone key if your keyboard has one ⁶.
4. Speak the message, then say the punctuation you need.
5. Stop Dictation, check the text, and press Return to send it.

On Windows, click the chat box, press Win+H, speak, and then check the text before you send it.

It depends on your meeting and your settings

Some cases change the answer. If your Mac has Voice Control on, standard Dictation is not available, so you dictate through Voice Control instead ⁷. In a noisy room, a headset microphone is usually the better choice than a laptop microphone.

Privacy depends on the tool. On a Mac, Apple says voice inputs and transcripts for general text Dictation are processed on your device and not sent to Siri servers, and you can check this in Keyboard settings ⁸. Other dictation tools may work differently, so read their privacy settings before you dictate private material into a meeting.

If you want dictation in apps other than Zoom, our overview of voice to text on Mac and voice typing on Windows covers the built-in routes. Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. For a free route that does not need an app, read our guide on dictation versus transcription and whether voice typing is free.

What to do

• To write chat messages by voice, use your computer's dictation in the chat box, and check each message before you send it.
• To keep a record of what people said, do not rely on captions. Turn on a saved transcript or record the meeting, as described in how to turn on transcription in Zoom and how to find and download a Zoom transcript.
• To check whether a feature exists in your Zoom version, search Zoom's own support site, because menus change over time.

Terms used here are explained in our glossary entries on dictation, voice typing and closed captions.