"Virtual" rooms and live subtitles: this is how Microsoft Teams changes

New features to make meetings more natural: transcriptions will be attributed to the user, colleagues will be able to meet in a "meeting room". Simultaneous translation soon

Microsoft Team introduces new features (image: Microsoft) Microsoft Teams has released new features that will help people stay connected with suppliers and colleagues. These new additions are the result of an analysis of workers' habits in the months of the lockdown and look to the future of smart working. "With the evolution of the global response to Covid-19, communities around the world have gone from an" all-remote "era to a more hybrid model of work, learning and life," writes Microsoft in presenting Teams updates. .

All together in a virtual room

The goal of this update is to make a tool that allows you to interact with up to 49 people at the same time less impersonal. If the presence on video is already a step ahead of an email or a phone call, Microsoft has tried to make virtual interactions "more natural, engaging and human".

Thanks to Together Mode, users connected by videoconference they can be virtually positioned within a shared background. This increases the overall feeling by virtually projecting the participants into the same room and thus making them feel more involved and no more than the simple faces in a grid. According to studies conducted by Microsoft, this modality reduces fatigue and ensures greater concentration.

the Results of the study on the activity of the brain during the use of the new functions of the Teams (image: Microsoft) another novelty increases the inclusiveness of the platform. Microsoft Teams already provide subtitles for live-transcribing what is said in a video conference, but the update will be able to assign the phrases transcribed by the user who has spoken. At the end of the meeting, the platform will generate a file with the transcription of the dialogues . The company has made to know that in the course of the year, this feature will make a further leap forward, with the translation of the subtitles .

You can also send emoticons as a reaction to the content and use of the filters to customize the lights or the focus of the video.

looking to the future

The goal of Microsoft is to intersect changes in the way work is done. The research conducted by the Harris Poll , market analysis firm, showed that the working week “traditional” 5-day schedules from 9 to 17, is slowly disappearing .

The company added that, during the lockdown, “ the chat about Teams from 8 to 9 and from 18 to 20 are increased more than any other, between 15% and 23%”.