Tag: Microsoft Teams

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3D Microsoft Teams avatars to roll out in May

Back in 2021, Microsoft announced that it is working on 3D avatars for Microsoft Teams that animate based on vocal cues, without the need for an active camera. Two years down the line and it appears that Microsoft is close to rolling the feature out.

As spotted in an update to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, Microsoft has been testing the feature privately the past few months, and is expected to roll it out in May this year.

“Avatars for Microsoft Teams gives you that much-needed camera break, while still allowing you to collaborate effectively. You can add a new layer of choice to your meetings and represent yourself the way you want with customizable avatars and reactions,” reads the in-development feature’s description.

In a statement given to The Verge back in 2021, Katie Kelly, principal product manager for Microsoft Mesh, alluded that with avatars, users will have a variety of customization options to choose from, and that Teams would be able to animate the avatar with vocal cues such as your tonality.

Microsoft is also reportedly planning to use the same avatar feature for immersive meetings in Meta’s Quest AR/VR headsets.

Image credit: Microsoft

Source: Microsoft Via: The Verge

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New GPT-3.5-powered Teams Premium feature can take notes for you

Microsoft is adding more features to its Premium paid version of Teams.

Notably, the paid platform gives users access to advanced AI capabilities powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 language model. The tool is used in a new “intelligent recap” feature, that automatically generates notes, tasks, and meeting highlights, making it easier for users to catch up on missed meetings or meetings where they weren’t paying attention.

Microsoft started offering a 30-day free trial of Teams Premium last month, and the platform will soon have access to exclusive features like live translated captions, custom Together Mode scenes, and virtual appointment options, in addition to intelligent recap.

The recap includes a full transcript with each speaker’s contributions highlighted in a timeline, as well as personalized markers for mentions. Most of the intelligent recap features are available now, although some won’t be available until Q2 2023.

Regular Teams features that are moving to Teams Premium are:

  • Live translated captions
  • Timeline markers in Teams meeting recordings for when a user left or joined meetings
  • Custom organization Together mode scenes
  • Virtual Appointments: SMS notifications
  • Virtual Appointments: Organizational analytics in the Teams admin center
  • Virtual Appointments: Scheduled queue view

Apart from the intelligent recap, Teams Premium also features meeting privacy and protection tools. As shared by The Verge, safeguard in place are watermarking and labeling of sensitive content during meetings, in addition to the ability to restrict users from recording meetings and/or copying text from meeting chat.

Microsoft Teams Premium is now available in the U.S. for $10 (roughly $13 CAD). It is currently unknown when the plan would launch in Canada, though you can sign up on Microsoft’s website to stay informed about developments.

Image credit: Microsoft

Source: Microsoft Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft Teams to lose some features to Teams Premium

Microsoft is migrating some of Microsoft Teams’ features to Microsoft Teams Premium, the company’s more expensive version of Teams with some AI-powered smart features.

As reported by The Verge, Microsoft started offering a 30-day free trial of Teams Premium last month, and the platform will soon have access to exclusive features like live translated captions, custom Together Mode scenes, and virtual appointment options.

The migration of features was found by The Register, reportedly in a licensing guide update from late last month. According to the licensing guide update, “some Teams features will move from Teams licenses to Teams Premium licenses. To allow your users to keep using these features, you’ll need to purchase and assign Teams Premium licenses.”

The features that are moving to Teams Premium are:

  • Live translated captions.
  • Timeline markers in Teams meeting recordings for when a user left or joined meetings.
  • Custom organization Together mode scenes.
  • Virtual Appointments: SMS notifications.
  • Virtual Appointments: Organizational analytics in the Teams admin center.
  • Virtual Appointments: Scheduled queue view.

The company also notes that the features will remain available inside regular Microsoft Teams for 30 days once Premium launches. “After the 30-day grace period, users will lose access to features previously available in Teams without the Teams Premium add-on, unless the admin purchases and assigns Teams Premium licenses for their users,” wrote Microsoft.

Further, Microsoft has indicated that the monthly cost for Teams Premium per user is anticipated to be $10 (roughly $13 CAD); however, the official pricing will only be disclosed once the tool launches widely.

Learn more about Microsoft Teams Premium here.

Source: The Register Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft Teams sound quality improved with AI

Microsoft has unveiled that it’s bringing improved sound quality to Microsoft Teams through new AI features.

These features include echo cancellation to cut out unnecessary noise from speakers, making audio clear when multiple users talk at the same time, ‘de-reverberation’ to suppress reverberated sound in a room, interruptibility for more natural conversations through two-way audio transmission, and enhanced background noise suppression.

According to Robert Aichner, a principal program manager for intelligent conversation and communications cloud at Microsoft, 30,000 hours of speech training samples were analyzed to train the AI  to suppress unwanted audio (via The Verge).

In addition, Microsoft has also added video quality improvements like real-time screen optimization for text quality, AI-based improvements to bandwidth constraints and brightness/focus filters.

Microsoft says it will release these video and audio improvements to Teams Windows and Mac/iOS users in the “coming months.”

A future release is also planned for Teams’ Android and web clients.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Sources: Microsoft Via: The Verge 

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Rogers to serve as Microsoft’s Canadian partner on new Teams feature

Rogers and Microsoft have entered a five-year partnership to help businesses enhance their digital experience.

Rogers is using Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure, in combination with its 5G network  to fuel innovation, new customer experiences, and encourage employee collaboration. It’s also the first to offer Operator Connect Mobile in Canada.

The new feature allows a single SIM number to function across Microsoft Teams, which Azure powers. The number can be used to make calls on mobile or desktop. Users can seamlessly move calls between the two without any disruptions.

Rogers says the solution will allow companies to reduce the cost of voice services and enhance customer and employee experience.

“Landlines and legacy voice services are rapidly being replaced by mobile — the workplace is shifting, and our customers have embraced new ways of working,” Ron McKenzie, President of Rogers Business, said in a statement. “Together, we are bringing Operator Connect Mobile to Canada, which will help businesses save up to 50 percent in costs by upgrading outdated, expensive legacy voice infrastructure.”

Rogers is the only Canadian company where Operator Connect Mobile is available. BT, Swisscom, Telia, and Verizon are the other companies Microsoft is working with.

Source: Rogers

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Mobile Syrup

Fix coming for Android bug that broke 9-1-1 calls with Microsoft Teams installed

Google is aware of a strange issue with Android and Microsoft Teams that can prevent emergency service calls, such as dialling 9-1-1.

The company posted a detailed response following an investigation into a report about a Pixel device preventing someone from calling 9-1-1. A Reddit user detailed what happened with their Pixel 3 running Android 11 on U.S. carrier Verizon:

“I got off a phone call with my mom, and proceeded to dial 911 just by typing and calling on my pixel. My phone got stuck immediately after one ring and I was unable to do anything other than click through apps with an emergency phone call running in the background. This is all while the phone informed me that it had sent my location to emergency services.”

In its response, Google said it was able to “reproduce the issue under a limited set of circumstances,” and shared the following:

“We believe the issue is only present on a small number of devices with the Microsoft Teams app installed when the user is not logged in, and we are currently only aware of one user report related to the occurrence of this bug. We determined that the issue was being caused by unintended interaction between the Microsoft Teams app and the underlying Android operating system.”

The key here is that the issue only seems to impact people who have Microsoft Teams installed on their phone but haven’t signed into the app. Google also notes that the issue only impacts Android 10 and up. If you fall into that group, Google advises that you uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Teams — that should fix the problem in the interim.

Moreover, Google said that it and Microsoft had prioritized the issue due to the impact on emergency calling and it expects an update to Microsoft Teams to roll out soon. Additionally, Google will push an Android platform update to the Android ecosystem in January.

Finally, Google thanked Reddit user ‘KitchenPicture5849’ for bringing the problem to the company’s attention. Although the issue is quite concerning, it’s good to see Google and Microsoft taking fast action to resolve the problem.

You can check out the Reddit post for yourself here.

Source: Reddit Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft Teams Essentials offers expanded meeting limits for small businesses

Microsoft now has a stand-alone Teams offering aimed at small-midsize businesses (SMBs).

Dubbed ‘Teams Essentials,’ the new product packs in a few new features designed specifically for SMBs alongside the typical slate of Teams features.

That includes extended meeting times sizes, with a 30-hour time limit and a 300 person limit. Teams Essentials also offers twice the amount of free Teams cloud storage: 10GB.

Beyond that, Teams Essentials offers the same features as regular Teams. That includes calendar integration with Outlook or Google, group chat templates, easy invitations, and much more.

It’s also worth noting that regular customers looking to use Teams for personal use can unlock the expanded meeting capabilities with a Microsoft 365 Family or 365 Personal subscriptions instead of getting the business-oriented Teams Essentials.

Microsoft says it will sell Teams Essentials direct to customers as well as through cloud partners. You can learn more about Teams Essentials here.

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Microsoft is bringing back our old friend Clippy

Microsoft is, surprisingly, bringing back ‘Clippy’ to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft revived the paperclip about two years ago and then killed it just after a couple of days.

Again, Microsoft is planning on launching a sticker pack that’ll be available on its Teams service that offers a lot of different versions of the original emoji.

On Microsoft’s feedback portal, company representative Alex O gave the following statement: “Yes, it’s true – Clippy has agreed to come out of retirement! Whether you loved him or hated him, Clippy is back with a Retro Sticker Pack in Teams. By the way, be sure to checkout the nostalgic Teams background featuring Clippy as well at https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/blog/2021/07/08/get-nostalgic-with-new-microsoft-teams-backgrounds.”

It’s worth noting that the link doesn’t work.

The sticker pack looks similar to what was available on the retro sticker pack that was available on Teams two years ago.

The first Clippy sighting was in Office 97 that would offer hints for those using Microsoft Office software.

Source: Microsoft Via: The Verge