Salesforce Dictionary - Free Salesforce GlossarySalesforce Dictionary
Full Real-Time Transcription entry
How-to guide

How to set up real-time transcription in Service Cloud Voice

Real-time transcription needs configuration in the telephony layer and a component on the page before agents see any text. These steps cover the Salesforce side for a Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect setup. Confirm the exact labels in your org, since they shift slightly by Voice model and release.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Founder & Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Jun 16, 2026

Real-time transcription needs configuration in the telephony layer and a component on the page before agents see any text. These steps cover the Salesforce side for a Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect setup. Confirm the exact labels in your org, since they shift slightly by Voice model and release.

  1. Confirm Service Cloud Voice is set up

    Make sure Service Cloud Voice is provisioned and your telephony model (Amazon Connect, partner telephony, or BYOT) is connected. Transcription rides on top of a working Voice setup, so the call integration must function first.

  2. Enable transcription in the contact flow

    In your Amazon Connect contact flow, enable real-time transcription. For calls longer than 15 minutes, enable Contact Lens and real-time transcription rather than relying on Amazon Transcribe alone, which stops transcribing after 15 minutes.

  3. Add the Enhanced Conversation component

    In Lightning App Builder, open the Voice Call record page and drag the Enhanced Conversation component onto the layout. This is where the live transcript renders for the agent, so save and activate the page for the right app and profiles.

  4. Assign permissions and set language

    Grant agents the required Service Cloud Voice permission set licenses, and set the transcription language to match your customers. A wrong language setting yields an unusable transcript and breaks the Einstein features that read it.

  5. Test a real call end to end

    Place a test call, confirm text appears in near real time, and let it run past 15 minutes to verify Contact Lens keeps transcribing. Check that the completed transcript stays attached to the Voice Call record after the call ends.

Key options
Transcription engineremember

Amazon Transcribe, Contact Lens for Amazon Connect, or a partner telephony provider's own engine. Contact Lens is required to transcribe calls longer than 15 minutes.

Enhanced Conversation componentremember

The Voice Call record page component that displays the live and saved transcript. Without it, transcription runs but agents see nothing.

Transcription languageremember

The spoken language the engine listens for. It must match the customer's language, and supported languages depend on the transcription service you chose.

Einstein features on topremember

Optional layers that consume the transcript, including knowledge surfacing, Einstein Next Best Action, sentiment, and post-call Conversation Insights and call summaries.

Gotchas
  • Amazon Transcribe on its own transcribes only the first 15 minutes of a call because of a Lambda function limit. Use Contact Lens for longer calls.
  • If the Enhanced Conversation component is not on the Voice Call record page, agents see no transcript even when transcription is enabled.
  • Calls placed before transcription and permissions are fully configured are not transcribed after the fact, so test before going live.
  • A transcription language that does not match the spoken language produces garbled text and degrades every Einstein feature that reads it.

See the full Real-Time Transcription entry

Real-Time Transcription includes the definition, worked example, deep dive, related terms, and a quiz.