Use Notetaker with multiple languages

Last updated: October 20, 2026

Available on: Mac (macOS 13 or later) and Windows, where Notetaker is enabled. Notetaker is turned off for accounts with a signed BAA where HIPAA cloud-sync restrictions apply.

Notetaker transcribes meetings in 21 languages and detects the spoken language automatically, so there is nothing to select before a call. You can also translate a transcript, during or after the meeting.

Note: Settings → General → Languages applies to dictation only; adding or removing a language there does not change how Notetaker transcribes a meeting. For dictation, see Use Flow with multiple languages.

Supported languages

Meeting transcription supports Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Hinglish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Urdu. Cantonese is handled as Chinese, and Hinglish — mixed Hindi and English speech — is detected automatically like any other supported language.

Meetings in other languages still record and transcribe, but transcripts may contain more errors. You cannot pin or override the language for a meeting, and saved account language preferences can influence meeting transcription.

Where post-meeting transcript refinement is enabled, language-related refinements happen only after the meeting, so the final transcript can differ from the live one.

Translate a transcript

Note: The translate button is dimmed when translation is unavailable — when you are offline, when live translation is turned off, or when your organization's policy blocks translation.

  1. Open the meeting in Notepad.

  2. Select the Transcript tab.

  3. Select the translate button (Translate transcript, marked Beta).

  4. Choose a language from the picker, which lists the 21 supported languages alphabetically with Original language at the top.

  5. Wait for the change to finish; a second choice made during a change has no effect. If Translation unavailable appears, the transcript returns to the previous language — choose the language again.

Choose Original language to return to the original. Changing the language during a live meeting does not interrupt capture: your speech keeps recording, anything said while the change is in progress arrives translated, and translation applies to each complete line as shown.

On-screen language prompts

Flow bar translation tip

During a live meeting, a Tip notification can appear on the flow bar: "Looks like someone is speaking [Language] — Notetaker can translate what others are saying to your preferred language." Choose Translate live transcript to open Notepad on the Transcript tab with the live-translation language picker already open, or Not now to dismiss it.

  • What triggers it: A supported non-English language spoken by other people, with enough speech to be confident; your own microphone, your dictation languages and your app language are not counted, and the tip appears only when Notepad isn't already open.

  • Frequency: At most once per meeting, and never again for a language you have already seen the tip for.

Translation suggestion

During a live meeting, the Transcript tab shows a pill reading "[Language] detected · Translate to [target]" when a non-English language is being spoken that is neither in your languages nor your app language. Click it to turn on live translation into your app language, or into English if your app language is not one of the 21 supported translation languages.

  • Dismissing it: Click the X to hide the suggestion for that language for the rest of the session; a different language detected later can bring the pill back.

  • When it stops appearing: Once translation has been used in that meeting, the pill no longer shows.

Unsupported-language warning

When a sustained stretch of recent speech is in an unsupported language, Notetaker plays an alert sound and shows a warning titled "This sounds like a language we don't support yet". Choose Learn more to open this article in your browser, or Got it to dismiss it.

  • What triggers it: Only a sustained stretch of recent speech — a few stray words in another language during an English call, or very short utterances, will not trigger it. Your microphone and the meeting's audio are considered separately; either can trigger the warning.

  • Frequency: At most one warning per meeting; once you have been warned about a language on a device, that device stays quiet for that language, but a different unsupported language can trigger a warning in a later meeting.

Summaries and speaker labels

  • Summary language follows the audio: The TL;DR, key points, next steps, decisions, and action items are written in the language predominantly spoken; your notes and calendar event details do not override it.

  • Some elements stay in English: Top-level section titles ("Flow Summary", "Action Items") and speaker labels. An English "Next Steps" or "Decisions Made" heading is never added to a summary in another language; if no heading is available in the meeting's language, the bullets appear without a heading.

  • Very short or silent meetings: These receive an English placeholder summary.

Still need help?

Reach out to support if a meeting in a supported language transcribes into a different language, or produces a transcript with widespread errors.

  1. Click the ? icon in the Flow desktop app.

  2. Select Talk to support.

Include the meeting language, your platform and device, what you tried, and a short example of what was said versus what Notetaker transcribed.