Delayed Caption in Zoom when using Closed Captioning API

[skinner.cheng (Skinner)]

Description

If I open Zoom Mac app, then get the Closed Captioning API from Zoom Mac app, then send the transcript using this API by POST request. It works. The caption immediately shows in Zoom Mac app.

However, if I stop the script I use to send the transcript, then I re-run the same script with the same Closed Captioning API (I didn’t close/restart Zoom Mac app though), the transcript would not immediately show up, after 10-20 seconds, the caption suddenly show up like it was stuck for a while then suddenly it’s not stuck, all those transcripts show one by one in very quick way.

Unless I restart Zoom Mac app and start over, the 1st time the caption alway shows up immediately.

Is there anyway I can keep using the same Zoom session and sort of reset something before calling Closed Captioning API again?

Error
No any error. Every time the POST request always returns the timestamp.

Which App Type (OAuth / Chatbot / JWT / Webhook)?
Node JS. Use request-promise package to do HTTP POST request with the Zoom Closed Captioning API.

Which Endpoint/s?
I don’t really use any endpoint, I only just copy the API token by this page - https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002212983-Integrating-a-third-party-closed-captioning-service

How To Reproduce (If applicable)
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open Zoom app, get Closed Captioning API token.
2. Run the script to push the transcript using Closed Captioning API token. Caption in Zoom always show up immediately.
3. Stop the script, then redo 2nd. Without restarting Zoom app. Then the caption in Zoom will show up after 10-20 seconds.

[DeveloperBot]

Hey @skinner.cheng

Thanks for posting on the Zoom Devforum! I am still learning, but I will try my best to help answer your question.

Checkout these related threads that may have the answer you are looking for:

Is the closed caption API still available?

Hi, I saw this article online: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002212983-Closed-Captioning-with-REST-API But it seems as though the closed captioning API might be deprecated?

Downloading Closed Captions

We are using V2 API. We recorded a meeting yesterday and we requested closed captions. They day after I checked the API in Postman: /meetings/:meetingId/recordings uuid “NzygAVdoTGuBFL6g63o0nw==” and I see there is two recording_files, one with recording_type: shared_screen_with_speaker_view and one with audio_only. Can we ever expect to see a closed caption file here in the API for download or if not where can we programmatically get the download URL from?

Difference between audio transcript and closed captions

Description/Error The meeting recording APIs show that a meeting can contain closed captions files (type CC) and audio transcript files (type audio_transcript). Both are reported to be VTT files. What is difference between the two? Who or what creates the audio transcript? (human created/machine created).

If these threads did not help, please let us know by replying back here and someone from the Developer Relations team will get back to you shortly.

Thanks,
DeveloperBot

[skinner.cheng (Skinner)]

Thanks for the links above. However, they don’t really help per the issue I have now.

[chrislim (Chris)]

We’ve been seeing similar delay issues today in some cases with a delay of 10 minutes and where old captions are getting jumbled/intermingled with newer ones. I wonder if something was going wrong with the caption API earlier today.

[skinner.cheng (Skinner)]

I just submitted the request in Zoom Support.

I also found there’re some posts before:

Closed caption endpoint (/closedcaption) lags sometimes

I’m using the /closedcaption endpoint for a 3rd closed captioning integration. I sometimes experience big lag in between subtitles - After I call the endpoint, It could take a few minutes before the corresponding subtitle response is returned to my zoom screen. When it dose return, all subtitle responses of calls in this period are returned all together to my zoom screen. I did remember to increase the ‘seq’ val by 1 each time I called the endpoint with new text.

Unpredictable delay before first CC message is displayed

I read the page: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002212983-Integrating-a-third-party-closed-captioning-service Description Zoom replies to my initial Closed Caption POST with a timestamp and no error code, but the message is not displayed in the user interface, nor does it give the “Closed captioning available message” . Only after an unpredictable delay of between 15 seconds and several minutes does the user interface respond to subsequent CC messages. After that messages ar…

Hopefully there’s any update, though.

[stephenw (Stephen)]

I also had similar issues while trying to caption a theatre show this evening - lines extremely delayed and then when they eventually did appear, garbled together. Everything was working fine this afternoon! Any ideas?

[will.zoom (Will)]

Hi @skinner.cheng @chrislim @stephenw

Thanks for raising this with us—our team is looking into the lag (ZOOM-197842). We’ll circle back here as soon as we have an update.

Thanks!
Will

[skinner.cheng (Skinner)]

Hi Will@Zoom,

Thank you for replying instead of just telling us it should be transferred to Zoom CS.

Any idea of the timeline here? We have a multi-million dollar client who just got back to us as the lag embarrassed them in front of a presentation. We’d like to communicate them a bit more details than this.

Thank you again!

Skinner

[will.zoom (Will)]

Hey @skinner.cheng, I hear you—I’ll be sure to update this post as soon as I have an update. Thanks again for relaying the impact!

Best,
Will

[chrislim (Chris)]

Good morning! Just wanting to check in on for an update on ZOOM-197842?

We had a similar situation as @skinner.cheng and want to get back to our client with a meaningful answer.

Thanks!
Chris

[skinner.cheng (Skinner)]

Hi,

Like you seen, I haven’t seen any update from people@Zoom. I also subscribed the Newsletter@Zoom and expect if any API update but same - no further update received on my side.

Besides, instead of the current way (copy API token from Zoom’s app and it’s a free integration), I would like to have CC API Zoom provides like other APIs, as a formal and uniform API we can call from Backend, we just assign the roomId as parameter. I don’t mind if we need to pay for using this API as long as it’s flexible and stable. IMO.

Skinner

[will.zoom (Will)]

Hi @chrislim @skinner.cheng

Our team is still looking into this—as soon as there’s an update, I’ll be happy to share here. I also recommend subscribing to our Changelog for updates on what’s included in each new release.

Thanks,
Will

[asowa (Alex)]

Same issues here where it lags. Any update on integrated captioning in Zoom?

[will.zoom (Will)]

Hey @asowa,

While we’re working on addressing the lag, I can certainly appreciate the desire for a full-fledged integration. While this is on our radar, I’d also encourage you to post in #feature-requests as well.

Thanks,
Will

[asowa (Alex)]

It actually did just come out. Live transcribing.

Alex Sowa
Director of Educational Technology
Technology Support Specialist

[will.zoom (Will)]

Hey @asowa,

Are you referring to live transcription on the Closed Captioning API, or something else?

Thanks!
Will

[asowa (Alex)]

live transcription

[skinner.cheng (Skinner)]

I believe Live Transcribe is another thing and Zoom actually doesn’t provide it. In our Product we use another service to transcribe then use Zoom CC API to push the caption in Zoom app.

[skinner.cheng (Skinner)]

Good hint. I will post in #feature-requests

[will.zoom (Will)]

@skinner.cheng That’s correct — @asowa you will need to utilize a third party service for a full fledged subscription functionality in real time. Thanks for stepping in, @skinner.cheng

Best,
Will