Translate a Zoom meeting in real time

Zoom’s interpreter feature exists, and it works — for organisations that have human interpreters on call. For everyone else, including the language tutor running a small group class, the founder doing a customer call across continents, or the speaker giving a webinar to a multilingual audience, the interpreter feature is either off-limits (it requires a paid plan tier) or impractical (it requires booking human interpreters who actually understand the subject).

Loquira gives Zoom users a third option: the meeting host runs Loquira on a second device, and any participant who would prefer to listen in their own language joins the Loquira session alongside Zoom. The Zoom call itself is unchanged.

Why the parallel model fits Zoom

Zoom is designed around a single audio mix delivered to all participants. Layering AI translation into that mix would be technically possible — the result is usually two voices on top of each other, which sounds worse than either alone. Loquira keeps Zoom’s audio for the native-language listeners and delivers translated audio separately through the listener’s phone or laptop.

The result, for the listener who needs translation, is to wear earbuds and listen to Loquira while watching the speaker’s face on Zoom. The slight desynchronisation (about a second) between the speaker’s mouth on Zoom and Loquira’s translated audio in their ear is similar to what listeners experience with simultaneous interpretation in any in-person setting. After a minute, it stops being noticeable.

Recommended setup

• Host’s microphone. Whatever microphone the host uses for Zoom — a USB condenser, a headset mic, a laptop mic in quiet rooms. The same mic feeds Loquira if the Loquira device is close enough to read it directly, which is the simplest pattern.
• Loquira device position. A phone on the host’s desk, within a metre of the host’s mouth. The phone’s microphone reads the host’s voice in parallel with Zoom’s microphone reading.
• Distribution. Two channels: (a) the Loquira join link in the calendar invite so attendees can prepare; (b) the same link pasted in Zoom chat at the start of the meeting for those who didn’t see the invite.
• Earbuds for listeners. Recommend in the calendar invite that attendees who plan to listen in translation bring earbuds. Watching Zoom while listening to Loquira on the same phone or laptop speaker creates audible echo; earbuds eliminate it.

Multiple speakers in one meeting

If two or three people on the same side of a meeting will speak, they can share a single Loquira session as long as they’re all in the same room and the device captures them all. For distributed teams where each speaker is on their own Zoom tile, each speaker runs their own Loquira session on their own second device. Listeners switch between sessions in the Loquira listener interface as the active speaker changes.

This sounds cumbersome and it is — for meetings with frequent speaker handoffs across remote participants, the dual-device model has a per-speaker overhead. For meetings with one or two consistent speakers (a host plus a co-host, a tutor plus students who listen more than speak), it’s fine.

What about Zoom Webinars?

Zoom Webinars are the same model as Zoom Meetings for translation purposes. The webinar host runs Loquira; the link is shared with registrants in the confirmation email and in chat at the start. Webinar attendees who are listen-only benefit the most from this pattern: they’re not contributing audio, only consuming it, and the translated track is the only audio they need.

Limitations specific to Zoom

• Breakout rooms. Each breakout room has its own audio. The host’s Loquira session captures only what the host’s microphone hears. For translated breakouts, each room’s facilitator runs their own Loquira session in the breakout.
• Recording. Zoom’s cloud recording records the Zoom audio only. Loquira’s transcript and per-language audio replays are separate; link both from the meeting recap if you send one.
• Closed captions. Zoom’s auto-captions and Loquira’s transcript are independent. Some attendees will read Zoom’s captions while listening to Loquira’s audio — both work, and they don’t interfere.
• Phone-dial-in attendees. Attendees who joined Zoom by phone (audio only) cannot use the Loquira listener through the same phone line. Direct them to the Loquira link from a second device or skip translation for that attendee.