Change a conversation start time – Help Center

By default, conversations display a start time of 00:00 (mm:ss) and timestamps that divide them into sections based on pauses in speech and speaker tagging. However, you may want to use the time of day (e.g., 12:45:15) as the start time to sync with the video source and offset the timestamps accordingly.

Getting Started: This setting is managed by Otter. To enable timecodes, contact your Otter account manager.

Change the start time to the time of day

Admins can enable timecodes for the workspace. This change will be applied across the workspace. As an admin, click your profile in the upper-left corner and go to Manage Workspace → Settings, and enable Display Timecodes.

Things to know

Applies only to new conversations. Time of day is added only to new conversations recorded with Otter, Zoom, or imported audio and video files. Existing conversations and conversations shared with you aren’t updated and continue to display a start time of 00:00 by default. You can manually edit the start time for any conversation.
Timezone and time format. Timecodes use your account’s current time zone and display in 24-hour format (HH:MM:SS). If you need to use a different time zone, contact our Otter Support team.
Turning off timecodes. Disabling timecodes affects only future conversations. Existing conversation start times remain unchanged and aren’t reverted.

Manually change a conversation start time

Go to the conversation you want to change the start time for.
Click on the three-dot menu and select Change start time.
Enter a new start time in the hh:mm:ss format and click Apply.
The start time and subsequent timestamps will adjust to the new start time.

Note: If the initial timestamp differs from the start time you entered, it may be because there was no spoken audio until the initial timestamp.

Import an audio file with an embedded start time

Using a media encoder or editing software, embed the start time into an MP3 file within any ID3 tag field using the format TC=hh:mm:ss:frames. For example, TC=12:45:15:29.

When you import the audio file to Otter, the embedded start time will be used as the start time.

FAQs

Why is the start time off?

The conversation start time depends on how the conversation was created.

Zoom integration: The start time is based on the scheduled meeting start time provided by Zoom.
Otter Notetaker: The start time is based on when Notetaker joins the meeting, which may be before or after the scheduled meeting start time.

As a result, the displayed start time may not always match the exact time the meeting began or when participants started speaking.

Can I change the start time on the mobile app?

No. Changing a conversation’s start time is currently available only on the web and desktop apps.

If you update the start time on the web or desktop, the changes are automatically reflected in the mobile app.

Keep the following in mind:

Display Timecodes must be enabled by a workspace admin on the web or desktop app before timecodes are shown.
Imported files that include embedded timecodes (for example, TC=hh:mm:ss:frames) will display those timecodes in the mobile app.