Zoom meetings keep us connected, but can generate a flood of hard-to-track information. Between the oral discussion and parallel chats, key points or action items can fall through the cracks. That’s why getting a transcript of your Zoom meeting chats is so valuable.
A complete record of your meeting’s chat allows you to revisit conversations, extract takeaways, and ensure follow-ups don't get missed. Whether you need it for your records, to clarify who said what, or to share with absent colleagues, accessing your meeting’s chat archive is a game-changer.
The good news is, getting a copy of your Zoom chats is relatively simple with the right tools. In this post, we’ll walk through easy methods using Zoom’s built-in functionality to save, print or export your meeting chat transcripts.
Enabling Zoom Chat Transcripts
Before you can obtain a Zoom meeting chat transcript, you first need to enable the capability:
- Log into your Zoom account online and click Settings.
- Select the Meeting tab from the left menu.
- Under Meeting Options, toggle on Save chat text from the meeting.
This will automatically preserve the full transcript of every meeting’s chat moving forward. Now let’s look at built-in Zoom tools for accessing them.
Built-In Zoom Options for Chat Transcripts
Zoom provides a couple native options for retrieving your meeting chat logs: downloading the text file or printing to PDF.
Downloading the Chat File
After a Zoom meeting ends, you can download the chat log:
- Log into your Zoom account online and click Meetings from the top menu bar.
- Locate the appropriate meeting from your list of recordings and click View.
- On the meeting playback page, click Chat in the menu.
- Click the More button in the upper right corner and select Save Chat.
- Your complete chat transcript will automatically download as a text file.
This plain text document captures every chat message, username, timestamp, etc. It’s perfect for maintaining comprehensive archives and easy to share with others.
Printing the Chat Log
If you prefer a paper copy, Zoom also enables printing your chats:
- Follow the same steps above to access the meeting playback and Chat menu.
- With chat open, click More and select Print Chat.
Your complete transcript will open as a PDF that you can print or save like any document. This gives you a physical record that’s great for meetings where handwritten notes or signatures are useful.
Between downloading and printing, Zoom’s built-in tools make accessing chat logs straightforward. You now have simple methods to save your chats as shareable files.
Bonus: Transcribe Your Zoom Meeting Audio
In addition to capturing your Zoom chat logs, consider using a tool like Supernormal to transcribe your meeting discussions. Supernormal sits in your Zoom meetings and generates AI-powered transcripts of the full conversation. You get time-coded transcripts that capture every word alongside speaker identification. This allows you to search the text for quotes, commitments and details from past meetings. It's perfect for notetaking, sharing meeting insights, and never losing context from important discussions. Pair Zoom's chat transcript capability with Supernormal's automated audio transcription for a complete archive of your meetings' conversations and outcomes.
Key Takeaways
Saving your Zoom meeting chats is easy when you know how. Here are the key points:
- Enable saving chats in your Zoom settings before meetings. This automatically preserves the transcript.
- Use Zoom’s built-in tools to download or print chat logs from past meetings.
- Downloaded text files or printed PDFs give you a shareable record of your chats.
- Consider Supernormal to also transcribe your meetings’ verbal discussions.
- Having your Zoom chat transcript allows you to review key points and action items.
- Share meeting chats with colleagues who couldn't attend or need to reference later.
With just a few clicks, you can save your Zoom chats to searchable files. Follow this guide to never lose important meeting conversations again!