Otter AI Expands Transcription to Follow Conversations Across 31 Languages

Preface

Otter.ai, an AI-powered note-taking platform, is expanding its language capabilities to better support international teams. Its forthcoming multilingual transcription feature is designed to recognize when speakers switch languages during a meeting and continue transcribing without requiring users to change settings. The company is also adding support for 27 languages, its largest language expansion to date. When the rollout is complete, Otter will support 31 languages in total. The update addresses a practical challenge for global collaboration: conversations can move between languages, making it harder to capture decisions and follow discussions consistently. This article outlines how the feature is expected to work, which languages are being added, how Otter says it developed its speech models, and how the announcement fits into the platform’s broader workplace AI offerings.

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Otter is adding 27 languages, bringing its total to 31 once the rollout is complete. Its planned multilingual transcription feature will detect language changes during a meeting and continue recording the conversation in text without manual setting adjustments. Thirteen new languages are available now, while 14 more are coming soon. The company says its speech models were trained on publicly available datasets and reviewed by native-speaking volunteers. The expansion accompanies Otter’s continued development of workplace tools, including Work Mode and Live Assist, which help users prepare for and participate in meetings.

Main Body

Otter.ai announced an expansion of its multilingual capabilities, including a feature intended to transcribe conversations that shift between languages during a single meeting. Rather than requiring a participant to select a new language whenever the discussion changes, the upcoming feature is designed to identify language changes automatically and continue transcribing. The announcement was made Tuesday, according to the source report.

This approach is relevant to meetings in which participants use more than one language. A conversation, for example, might move from English to Korean to Portuguese. Otter’s planned feature is intended to follow that progression within the same meeting, giving users a continuous transcript instead of requiring them to adjust settings as speakers change languages. The source describes this as an upcoming capability; it does not state that the multilingual switching feature is already available.

The company is also adding support for 27 languages, marking its largest language expansion to date. When the rollout is complete, Otter will support 31 languages in total. The larger language catalog and the ability to follow language changes are related but distinct parts of the announcement: one broadens the languages supported by the platform, while the other is intended to handle changes between languages during a conversation.

Thirteen of the newly added languages are available now: Mandarin Chinese, Korean, German, Italian, Cantonese, Portuguese, Russian, Indonesian, Malay, Dutch, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Polish. The remaining 14 are coming soon: Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Hebrew, Norwegian, Greek, Macedonian, Persian, Czech, Hungarian, and Romanian. The source does not provide specific launch dates for the languages that are coming soon.

The expansion is intended to address a familiar obstacle for global organizations. Teams working across regions may conduct meetings with participants who speak different languages, and language differences can make it more difficult to collaborate and keep track of what was decided. By increasing the number of supported languages and aiming to transcribe language switches automatically, Otter seeks to make its meeting records more useful to international teams.

An Otter spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company wants to reduce language barriers and help organizations build a system of record for decisions made through voice-based communication. The statement reflects the company’s stated purpose for the update: making meeting information easier to capture across different languages. It does not, by itself, establish how accurately the system performs in every language or meeting environment.

According to the company, the newly added languages run on Otter’s own speech models. Otter told the source that it trained these models using publicly available datasets and worked with native-speaking volunteers to review transcripts and check accuracy. This description outlines two elements of its development process: using available language data to train the models, then involving speakers familiar with the languages in transcript review. The source does not provide accuracy rates, evaluation benchmarks, or further technical details.

The announcement also comes as Otter continues to develop workplace AI tools beyond transcription. The source notes that the company received $320 million in funding from General Catalyst. It also describes recent additions aimed at helping users prepare for meetings and receive support while meetings are taking place. These products indicate a broader direction for Otter: using recorded meeting information as a foundation for additional workplace functions.

One such addition is Work Mode. It uses meeting history and connected apps to help users prepare for upcoming calls. For example, it can draw on information from previous customer conversations, outstanding action items, notes from teammates’ similar calls, and recent Google Drive files. By bringing together these materials, Work Mode is intended to give users relevant context before a meeting. The source does not specify which connected apps are supported beyond mentioning Google Drive files as an example.

Another recent addition is Live Assist, which offers real-time coaching during meetings. It analyzes the conversation and provides suggestions based on what has already been discussed and what is happening in the moment. In contrast to Work Mode, which helps users prepare ahead of a call, Live Assist is described as operating during the meeting itself. Both tools extend the platform’s role beyond producing transcripts, though the source does not detail the specific suggestions Live Assist may provide or how users can configure them.

Taken together, the multilingual expansion and workplace features show how Otter is broadening the way it handles meeting information. The language update focuses on capturing discussions across a larger set of languages and following a conversation as it changes languages. Work Mode and Live Assist apply meeting context to preparation and in-the-moment support. The practical value of these capabilities will depend on their availability, performance, and fit with the needs of different teams. For now, the announced language rollout provides a concrete expansion of the platform’s reach, with 13 languages available now and 14 more planned.

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