The short answer
What you get
Two things on every recorded call. The summary is a few sentences: who called about what, what was discussed, how it ended. The transcript is the whole conversation, with each side told apart. Both sit next to the recording in the call journey in Reports, so a call is reviewed on one screen without pressing play. The summary also shows on each past call in Callpop's history panel, and both come back through the API.
What has to be on
- Call recording on the extension. No recording, no audio, no transcript. Recording is switched on per extension when you ask, or on every extension at once by the Force call recording switch on the Settings page. See call recording.
- Transcription for the company. One switch for the whole account, called Transcription, on the Settings page. A login allowed to change Transcription Settings can turn it on or off, every Advanced login among them, or we turn it on when you ask.
- A login allowed to see them. Summaries and transcripts are permissions on the person's portal login, so a missing transcript is sometimes a permission question. See who can hear recordings.
When they are ready
The recording is playable about ten seconds after the call ends. The transcript and the summary follow within the hour, most within minutes, and the page fills them in without a reload.
Languages
The language is detected automatically. English is the strongest. Spanish is good. A call in Yiddish is transcribed and translated in the same pass, best effort: the result is as good as the technology manages on that call, and we do not promise its accuracy. Other languages are handled the same way. A call that switches language mid-conversation is generally followed, with a dip at the switch.
Accuracy
The audio decides it. A desk phone on a wired network and Webex on a laptop with a decent microphone transcribe best. A cell with weak signal, a speakerphone in a busy room, or a TV in the background transcribe worse. Because each side of a call is recorded on its own channel, who said what is reliable on a two-person call and less so on a conference. Even on rough audio the summary is usually right about the meaning of the call, which is why most people read the summary first and open the transcript only when they need the exact words.
Voicemail
The voicemail email carries the audio and no transcript. When transcription is on, the words are on the call in Reports, usually inside that call's own transcript. See voicemail.
Where it runs
Transcription and summaries are Vocatech features, not a third-party service bolted on, and they are covered under the HIPAA agreement where you have accepted it. Very short calls, under about six seconds, never connect long enough to record, so they carry no summary.