Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft Teams is to release new features for intelligent communication later this year, including cloud recording, inline message translation and background blur on video – all to improve the efficiency of meetings in the work place.
Cloud recording will provide meeting recordings with automatic transcription and timecoding, enabling all team members to read captions, search within the conversation, and playback the meeting. Inline message translation, meanwhile, will allow users who speak different languages to fluidly communicate with each other by translating posts in channels and chat.
Cortana voice interactions for Teams-enabled devices will enable users to make calls, join a meeting, or add other people to a meeting in Teams using spoken language. And background blur on video during calls will allow meeting attendees to focus on the speaker.
Other new features include proximity detection for Teams Meetings, which will make it easy for users to add a nearby and available Skype Room System to any meeting and mobile sharing in meetings, which will allow meeting attendees to share a live video stream, photos, or the screen from a mobile device.
Recognising that hardware plays a critical part in delivering consistent, high-quality video and voice experiences, Microsoft has also enabled Teams to be compatible with a full spectrum of calling and meeting room devices including Microsoft Surface Hub, a powerful all-in-one large-screen team collaboration device. Meeting room systems such as Lenovo and HP join existing partners Logitech, Crestron, and Polycom to transform the conference room experience with audio, HD video, centre-of-room control, and one-touch join.