Transcripts & conversations

Every recording and every upload becomes a conversation with a transcript and a summary. You find them in two places: the short list on the project’s “Overview”, and the full list under “Conversations” in the project sidebar.

When the text appears#

The portal sends audio in pieces of 30 seconds, and dembrane transcribes each piece as it arrives. While that work runs, “Conversations” in the sidebar shows a progress ring with the number of conversations recording or the number of parts still to transcribe. When it ends you see “Transcription done”, or “Transcription failed” when a conversation could not be transcribed.

The summary is written when the conversation is finished: when the participant presses “Finish”, or when no new audio has arrived for five minutes. If audio arrives after that, the conversation opens again and is summarised again.

What the statuses mean#

On “Overview”, each conversation has one status.

On the “Conversations” page a row can carry several badges at once.

On the conversation’s own page you can also meet “Empty” (the conversation is finished and has no text). It is explained in troubleshooting transcripts and summaries.

Find a conversation#

On the “Conversations” page:

• “Search” looks in the title, the participant’s name and email, and the summary. It does not look inside transcripts.
• “Sort” orders by date, name or length.
• “Tags” and the “Verified” switch narrow the list. “Reset filters” clears them.

To search inside transcripts, use “Search” in the sidebar, or press Ctrl K (⌘K on a Mac). It searches project names, conversations, transcript text and chats in everything you can open.

A conversation is listed under its generated title when it has one, otherwise under the name the participant entered, otherwise as “Untitled conversation”.

Read a conversation#

Open one to see, from top to bottom:

• The title, the participant’s name, the start date and time, and the tags.
• “Summary”: written by a language model. Copy it, or press “Regenerate summary” for a new one. That replaces the current summary.
• “Outcomes”: what the participant approved, when your portal uses Verify.
• “Transcript”: one block for each piece of audio, with its clock time. “Show audio player” puts a player under each block, so you can check a passage against the recording.
• At the bottom: “Move to another project”, “Download audio” and “Delete conversation”.

A summary is a place to start. When a point matters, read the transcript.

Edit a conversation#

Press “Manage” on a row to open “Edit conversation”. You can change the “Name”, the “Title”, the “Tags” and the “Summary”. Changes save by themselves.

You cannot edit the text of a transcript. To get a better transcript, add key terms and retranscribe.

Tags#

Create tags in the portal editor first, then assign them here. A conversation gets tags in three ways: the participant picks them on the start screen, you assign them in “Edit conversation”, or dembrane assigns up to three when “Auto-generate titles” is on.

Retranscribe#

The circular arrow next to the “Transcript” heading, “Retranscribe conversation” (Beta), makes a new conversation from the same audio with a fresh transcript. The original stays as it is. Add your key terms first. The steps are in troubleshooting transcripts and summaries.

Ask about a selection#

“Select conversations” puts a tick box on each row. Tick the ones you want and press “Ask about these” to start a chat about them. That is the only thing you can do with a selection: moving and deleting go one conversation at a time. See chat and Ask.

Move or delete#

• “Move to another project” sends one conversation to another project you can edit. Its tags, chats and outcomes stay with it. A conversation cannot move into or out of a workspace you run for an external client.
• “Delete conversation” cannot be undone. Admins and members can delete. The conversation leaves every list.

Download#

There is no spreadsheet export. More in export and data portability.

Anonymised conversations#

An anonymised conversation has personal details replaced in the transcript. You cannot play or download its audio, and you cannot retranscribe it.

No plan hides a transcript or a summary. The free plan limits how much audio comes in. See tiers, billing and usage.

After a session#

1. Skim the list and delete the test recordings.
2. Open anything marked “Transcription error” or “Empty”.
3. Retranscribe what reads badly, after adding key terms.
4. Tag the conversations the way you want to compare them later.
5. Go on to Ask or a report.

Related#

• Troubleshooting transcripts and summaries: wrong or missing text.
• Collecting conversations: how conversations come in.
• Setting up the portal: key terms, tags, anonymisation and titles.
• Conversations & transcripts: the feature reference.
• Transcription: how audio becomes text.
• Export and data portability: every way to take data out.