Being left confused by a Microsoft Teams message in a foreign language may soon no longer be an issue thanks to a new update coming to the service.
The video conferencing platform is working on introducing so-called “intelligent translation” for Microsoft Teams Mobile users.
Coming to Android and iOS users soon, the feature will mean that users will be able to quickly translate messages in a foreign language, making sure there’s never any delay or errors.
Microsoft Teams Mobile translation
In the Microsoft 365 roadmap entry (opens in new tab) for the new feature, the company notes that the tool will now, “prompt you to translate messages that are not in your language”.
There’s no mention of what exact languages are covered by the new feature, but it’s likely that a full range will be on offer. Microsoft notes that the feature should launch in August 2022, meaning it’s just a few weeks away for Android and iOS (opens in new tab) users alike.
The news is the latest step forward for Microsoft Teams and its translation tools as it looks to help users connect across the world. The company first announced plans to introduce real-time “Inline” translation for mobile Teams users back in May 2021 to help boost communication across the globe.
Back in March 2022, the company adopted Z-Code, a new AI technology that significantly improves the quality of production translation models. Z-Code supports the creation of AI systems that are capable of speaking, seeing, hearing and understanding, and has already been rolled into the company’s Microsoft Translator software and several other Azure AI services.
Microsoft Teams was able to introduce another form of real-time translation functionality to desktop video meetings earlier this year with a new addition giving access to a large network of professional interpreters who dial into meetings on request.
Once a session has begun, Microsoft Teams users can switch between the original audio feed and the interpreter’s translation via a drop-down menu.
