Otter writes down what is said in meetings and recordings, then turns it into notes and a summary you can search. On 10 November 2026 it added 13 languages and said 14 more are coming soon, Arabic among them. Not tried yet.
What’s new
Before the announcement Otter transcribed four languages: English, French, Spanish and Japanese. It has now added 13, including German, Turkish, Indonesian, Malay, Simplified Chinese, Korean and Russian, for 17 in all.
The next batch has 14 languages, including Arabic, Hindi, Persian and Hebrew, and Otter gave no date for it. It also promised an upcoming feature that follows a meeting as speakers switch languages, without changing any settings.
The new languages cost nothing extra on any plan and work on desktop, mobile and the web. Summaries, action items, search and AI Chat all work in the meeting’s language.
When does Arabic reach Otter?
From Otter's announcement of 10 November 2026. "Coming soon" is Otter's wording; it gives no date.
Before 10 Nov 2026 · Done
4 languages
English, French, Spanish and Japanese.
10 Nov 2026 · Now
13 new languages, 17 in all
Mandarin Chinese (Simplified), German, Italian, Cantonese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Indonesian, Malay, Dutch, Turkish, Vietnamese and Polish.
Coming soon, no date · Next
14 more, Arabic among them
Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Hebrew, Norwegian, Greek, Macedonian, Persian, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian. 31 languages in all.
Coming soon, no date · Next
Several languages in one meeting
Otter follows the conversation as speakers move between supported languages, with no setting to change.
Why it’s worth a look
If your team meets in English or one of the new languages, Otter transcribes and summarizes the meeting without manual work. Otter doesn’t transcribe meetings in Arabic yet, so don’t build your workflow on it for those.
Otter says it builds its speech models itself and doesn’t send audio to third parties. That is Otter’s claim; I haven’t checked it.
How to start
You need an Otter account, a browser or the mobile app, and about ten minutes. The free Basic plan is enough to try it.
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Create a free account at otter.ai/signup.
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Pick the meeting’s language: the one people speak, not the one you want a translation into. On desktop or the web: click your profile, then Account Settings, then General, and choose it under Transcript Language. In the mobile app: tap your profile picture, then Account Settings, then Conversation language under Preferences.
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Record a short meeting, or upload an audio file. On desktop or the web you pick the file’s language under Select transcript language when you upload it. The mobile app has no such option and uses the language you chose in step 2. The free plan allows only three uploaded files for the life of the account, so pick a short one.
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Check: open the conversation and make sure the transcript is in the meeting’s language. If the language is wrong, open the conversation on desktop or the web, choose More (⋯), then Change language, pick the language of the original recording and click Update language. Only the conversation’s owner can do this.
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Open AI Chat inside the conversation and ask for the summary:
Summarize this meeting in five bullet points. Then list the action items, each with its owner and due date if one was mentioned. Write the result in <language>. Do not add anything that was not said in the meeting.PromptA good result has bullet points that match what was said. Compare it with the transcript before you send it to anyone. Otter doesn’t list Arabic among AI Chat’s reply languages, so if you ask for Arabic, check the result carefully.
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If Arabic is what you need: Otter’s supported languages page in the Help Center links to a sign-up to try upcoming languages before release. Signing up doesn’t guarantee a place.
If it doesn’t work as expected:
- The transcript is in the wrong language: reprocess it as in step 4.
- Recording stopped after 30 minutes: that’s the free plan’s limit per conversation. Pro raises it to 90 minutes.
- A speaker has a different accent: pick the language they speak, not their accent. An accent isn’t another language.
Limits
- Arabic isn’t available yet, and there’s no date. Automatic switching between the new languages within one meeting is also coming, with no date. Today switching works only between French and English, when French is the chosen language.
- The free plan: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, three uploaded files for the life of the account, only the 25 most recent conversations, and 20 AI Chat questions a month, at most three per conversation. Pro costs $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed yearly.
- The 96% accuracy Otter quotes is its own figure, for English only, and isn’t a measure of the new languages.
- Choosing the meeting’s language transcribes it in that language; it doesn’t translate it. Translation comes from AI Chat.
- Tell people in the meeting that you’re recording before you start.