Can I enable automatic transcription for meetings via a policy?

I'm a normal user like all of you, but you have to realize that Microsoft Developers do NOT monitor these community threads, so No One from Microsoft who can do anything about this looks at this stuff. Microsoft has a feedback portal (and I can't remember where that is, I think it is in the Help or About section of the product) that you have to use to actually request stuff.

I know it is frustrating to see a long thread never be responded to, but just so you know, you won't see it here unless it is a feature update that Microsoft makes, and another users sees the answer and posts about it here.

Teams allows you to get a transcript and/or recording of the meeting. The feature being requested here is that meetings default to transcripts.

To be fair, I suspect Microsoft is considering security and privacy (which isn't top of mind for Zoom, ever. Which is why I use Teams over Zoom).

Microsoft did just roll out automatically, turning off cameras and microphones until participants agreed to be recorded. I suspect they needed that feature to be added first before they could allow default on recording.

This is absurd. I have a $$ copilot license and my meeting options are set to use copilot before and after. Because I assumed the transcription would start automatically...because Copilot told me it would, I now have no notes whatsoever for a very important meeting. Copilot's advice? Ask if anyone in the meeting took manual notes.

This should be a USER default that they can choose. Even if there was a policy setting, not all users are going to want that and we in IT cannot setup all of these different policies per groups of users that want or don't want something.

The "legal" reason should not matter as there is a popup when a transcription is started that all users see. What customers want is to have the turn on by default and do what it does when we manually turn it on.

Or better yet, if I have a copilot license, take the notes not matter what the setting is set to. That is what we pay for.

Plus one. This seems like a classic case of market access failure here.

Microsoft Teams has the supply—in this case, the technology and infrastructure to support automatic transcription and AI-driven notes, and there's clear demand from users like us who need these features seamlessly integrated into our workflows.

However, the current system design introduces an unnecessary barrier by requiring users to manually initiate recordings. This prevents users from fully accessing and benefiting from the product's capabilities.

By not enabling automatic transcription and recording as a policy-based feature, Microsoft is effectively restricting market access for users who already have the right licenses but lack a frictionless way to implement these tools. Enabling automatic recording and transcription globally or through a policy would eliminate this bottleneck and allow users to access the functionality they need with minimal hassle.

Come on Microsoft, get your act together please!

This is sorely needed. I am not sure why this is not an option already as the simple failure of people remembering to enable transcription is reducing the value of Copilot to our org.

Auto-starting transcription should be a policy-driven option. If there is a security or privacy risk simply add a disclaimer.