Choose a Language for Your Meeting
Pick a language or use Auto-detect, and see how mixed-language meetings work.
2 min read, updated
On this page
Choose a language before you start
NoteWave transcribes more than 99 languages. On the recording page, select the language people will speak before you start a recording or upload a file. The language you choose is used for the transcript and the summary.
The transcript stays in the language that was spoken. NoteWave doesn’t translate it, but you can do that in other ways, as shown below.
South African languages
NoteWave transcribes these South African languages:
See the full list of supported languages.
When to use Auto-detect
Choose Auto-detect if you aren’t sure which language will be spoken, or if you’re uploading a recording you haven’t heard. NoteWave uses the language it hears. If you know the language, choosing it yourself is the safer option.
Meetings in more than one language
Choose the language most people will speak, or use Auto-detect if the meeting is split evenly. People switching language in the middle of a sentence is the hardest case, so review those passages against the audio.
Summaries, minutes and translation
| Document | Language |
|---|---|
| Transcript | The language that was spoken |
| Summary | The language you chose, or the language NoteWave heard on Auto-detect |
| Formal minutes | Your choice. You can write English minutes from an Afrikaans meeting, for example |
| Echo | Ask Echo to translate a transcript or part of it in chat |
Minutes and Echo need Pro, Business, or an active Business trial. See how to create formal minutes.