- Microsoft Teams is upgrading its translation tools
- Up to 51 spoken and 31 translation languages now on offer
- Copilot-generated file summaries also coming to boost productivity
Connecting with colleagues, customers, and friends across the world is set to get much simpler thanks to a significant update to Microsoft Teams.
The video conferencing service has revealed it will be introducing transcription for multi-lingual meetings, supporting more languages than ever, even when it comes to meeting recaps.
Revealed as part of Microsoft's Ignite 2024 event news announcements, the news will also see an improved version of document summaries, generated and supplied by Copilot, to help users stay on track with their chats.
Microsoft Teams translation
Microsoft says the upgraded transcription and translation software features will help break down language barriers and facilitate improved collaboration among global teams.
Users will be able to select one of 51 spoken languages and one of the 31 translation languages on offer, with the meeting transcript able to record and supply the whole conversation, no matter what language is spoken.
The feature, which is coming in 2025 for Microsoft Teams desktop, web, and mobile apps, will also see live translations for captions and live transcripts supported.
Users will also receive an automatically-generated meeting recap supplied in whatever language they chose, after the meeting has ended, and can even alter the translation language via the Recap tab.
Elsewhere, the company revealed that Teams users will also be able to have a Copilot-generated summary of a file shared with them in a chat without needing to switch between apps.
Often, when a file is shared in a Teams chat, users aren't able to read through and digest in quickly, but the new feature, coming in preview in early 2025 will be able to quickly summarize the content so the user can understand the main points without opening the file.
Only users with access to the file will get a summary, so there's no risk of security leaks, with summaries carrying the same sensitivity label as the original file for extra safety.
Finally, the company is looking to make Microsoft Teams a place for employees of all levels to communicate via an upgrade to its Storyline feature, which will now be integrated within the platform.
Storyline will give all employees the opportunity to follow updates and notifications from leadership, discover content, contribute ideas and perspectives and express themselves to senior management, all from within Microsoft Teams.
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