Microsoft Teams can make you a language expert – but only if you pay

Some Microsoft Teams users will soon be able to see live transcripts of their calls, even if they are carried out in a foreign language, thanks to a new update.

The video conferencing platform has revealed it will allow users to view a live, translated transcript of their call, with a number of different languages being supported – meaning you shouldn’t fall behind following a conversation not in your native tongue.

However, only users subscribed to Microsoft Teams Premium will be able to access the translation feature, at least to begin with.

Microsoft Teams Premium translated transcript

The company shared the news in a brief entry on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap that gave little away.

“Teams Premium users can now view Live Transcript in their preferred languages during the meeting and choose to show the translated transcript with the original transcript as a reference,” the entry noted.

Exactly which languages will be available was unclear, but previous Microsoft Teams translation tools have supported a wide range, from German to Swahili and many more.

Users across mobile and desktop will be supported, with Android, iOS, Windows and Mac all set to receive the feature, which is set for a rollout date in September 2023.

Microsoft Teams Premium was initially launched in February 2023 as the company looked to offer an upgraded and more personal experience that included a number of AI-boosted plugins and features. This includes GPT 3.5, the AI language model developed by OpenAI, to automate certain mundane tasks surrounding meetings as part of its “intelligent recap” feature.

The company is currently offering Microsoft Teams Premium for $7 per user per month, a 30% discount off the $10 per user “standard price”.

The basic version of Microsoft Teams first added live translated captions in September 2022 as part of a bid to improve usability across the platform. The tool was made possible with Microsoft Cognitive Service Speech Translation Capabilities, part of the company’s Azure cloud platform, which it says offers powerful and fast translation services in real-time.

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