Microsoft has launched an update to its Teams on Web platform to improve accessibility and communication between employees who speak different languages.
Microsoft Teams web users now have the option to set custom backgrounds. They can either blur the background or choose from Microsoft’s provided options.
Web users can also view real-time captions within the Teams window, whereas they previously had to rely on a secondary window.
“Follow along with what is being said without having to choose between the captions and the presentation,” Microsoft said.
The live caption functionality includes speaker attribution and has been expanded to include 27 additional languages, including Bazilian Portuguese, German, Hindi, and Japanese.
Teams on Web’s live transcription service allows attendees who missed a meeting or joined late to view a meeting’s auto-generated transcript to catch up.
To enable the live transcription features, tenant administrators must turn on the “Allow transcription” service.
In a previous update, Microsoft introduced artificial intelligence to improve meeting sound quality by removing distracting background noises.
Microsoft said its machine learning model prevents users’ words from being echoed and reduces reverberation.
The company said this, combined with the captioning and transcription features, markedly improves employees’ remote working experiences.