What Is Live Share?
Imagine you're in a lecture hall, transcribing a professor's speech in real time. Now imagine your classmates — sitting across the room, in another building, or even in another country — can see that same transcription on their phones, instantly, with translation into their preferred language.
That's Live Share.
Live Share is LecSync's newest feature that turns your transcription session into a live broadcast. With one click, you generate a shareable link. Anyone who opens that link sees your transcription appear in real time — word by word, as it happens. No login required. No app to install. Just a browser.
Whether you're a teacher providing live captions for a diverse classroom, a meeting organizer enabling accessibility for remote participants, or a conference host offering real-time multilingual subtitles — Live Share makes it possible with zero friction.
How Live Share Works
The flow is simple:
- Start recording in LecSync as you normally would
- Click the Live Share button — it appears automatically during recording
- Share the link — via QR code (displayed on screen) or by copying the URL
- Viewers open the link — they instantly see live transcription in their browser
- Stop sharing whenever you're ready
Behind the scenes, LecSync uses a real-time event system that pushes transcription data to all connected viewers within milliseconds. The experience is smooth and responsive — viewers see partial text appear as words are spoken, followed by finalized segments with speaker identification and timestamps.
What Viewers See
Viewers get a clean, focused interface designed for readability:
- Live transcription that updates in real time with a blinking cursor
- Three display modes: Original text only, translated text only, or bilingual (side by side)
- Adjustable font sizes: Small, medium, large, or extra-large for projection
- Theme options: Light, dark, or system-matched
- Fullscreen mode: Optimized for projection on big screens, showing only the most recent segments
- Connection status: Clear indicators showing when the stream is live, paused, or ended
- Auto-scroll: New content automatically scrolls into view, with a manual scroll-back option
Viewers can customize all of these settings through a simple settings panel in the header — no account needed.
Use Cases
Classroom Accessibility
A professor lectures in English. International students follow along with real-time translation into Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, or any of LecSync's 60+ supported languages. One student runs LecSync and shares the Live Share link — the entire class benefits.
This is especially powerful for:
- Inclusive education: Students with hearing difficulties can follow live captions
- International classrooms: Students read translations in their native language
- Large lecture halls: Back-row students can read the transcript on their devices
Learn more about how LecSync helps students on our student solutions page.
International Meetings & Conferences
Running a meeting with participants who speak different languages? The meeting organizer starts LecSync with Live Share enabled. Remote participants who aren't in the video call — or who need translation — open the link and follow along in their preferred language.
This works for:
- Hybrid meetings: In-room and remote participants both get live captions
- Multilingual panels: Audience members choose their display language
- Town halls and all-hands: Large groups get accessible, real-time text
Explore our team solutions for more on how LecSync supports collaborative work.
Academic Conferences & Research
Researchers presenting at international conferences can share a Live Share link for real-time multilingual captioning. Attendees from different countries follow the presentation in their own language without waiting for post-event translations.
See how researchers use LecSync on our researcher solutions page.
Live Events & Content Creation
Podcast hosts, webinar presenters, and live streamers can provide real-time captions to their audience. The fullscreen mode is designed for projection — showing only the most recent segments in large, readable text.
Check out our creator solutions for more creative workflows.
Key Design Decisions
We built Live Share with several principles in mind:
Zero Friction for Viewers
Viewers don't need a LecSync account. They don't need to install anything. They just open a link in any modern browser. This was non-negotiable — the whole point is to make live transcription accessible to as many people as possible.
Smart Auto-Scroll
The viewer interface automatically scrolls to show new content as it arrives. But if a viewer scrolls up to re-read something, auto-scroll pauses so they aren't constantly pulled back down. A floating button shows how many new segments have appeared, and one tap brings them back to the latest content.
Fullscreen for Projection
In fullscreen mode, the display is optimized for big screens: only the 6 most recent segments are shown, with large text and a prominent "LIVE" badge. This is designed for classrooms and conference halls where the transcription is projected on a screen.
Late-Joining Support
Viewers who join mid-session don't miss what came before. When the link is opened, LecSync loads the existing transcript segments, then seamlessly transitions to the live stream. You get the full context, not just what happens after you arrive.
Bilingual Display
Viewers can toggle between three display modes:
- Original: See only the source language transcription
- Translated: See only the translated text
- Bilingual: See both original and translated text, clearly formatted
This flexibility means a single Live Share session serves viewers with different language needs simultaneously.
Getting Started with Live Share
Live Share is available to all LecSync users. Here's how to try it:
- Sign up for LecSync if you haven't already (it's free)
- Start a recording session from your dashboard
- Click the Live Share button that appears in the recording controls
- Share the generated QR code or link with your audience
- Your viewers open the link and see live transcription instantly
When you're done, click Stop Sharing. Viewers will see a clear "Ended" status, and the transcription session continues as normal in your account.
FAQ
Do viewers need a LecSync account?
No. Anyone with the link can view the live transcription without signing up or logging in.
How many viewers can watch at once?
Live Share is designed to support many concurrent viewers. The real-time broadcasting system scales to handle classroom and conference-sized audiences.
Is there any delay?
The delay is minimal — typically under one second from speech to text appearing on viewers' screens. Translation may add a brief additional delay as segments are processed.
Can viewers see the transcription history?
Yes. Viewers who join mid-session can scroll up to see all previous segments from that session. The complete transcript is available from the moment the share started.
Does Live Share work on mobile?
Yes. The viewer interface is fully responsive and works on phones and tablets. Viewers can use it in any modern mobile browser.
What's Next
Live Share is just the beginning of our vision for making transcription and translation more accessible and collaborative. We're excited to see how our users put it to work — from classrooms to boardrooms, from podcasts to international conferences.
Try Live Share today and let us know what you think. Have feedback or feature requests? We'd love to hear from you.
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