2 min

Microsoft announces multiple updates to Microsoft Teams: real-time translations, a global phone service, pre-recorded presentations and more.

The tech giant firmly believes in hybrid working. Microsoft Teams remains an important part of its strategy. Hence, Microsoft announced a series of new tools and services.

Collaborating with external parties

First up: Teams Connected shared channels. The feature allows external people to be added to internal Teams channels. Normally, the person must first be added to a team, which isn’t always desirable. Sometimes, it can be valuable to give — for example — freelancers access to a channel’s content, without exposing a team’s content. The feature is available per public preview before the end of the month.

Real-time translations

Secondly, language interpretation allows up to sixteen translators (humans) to be attached to a speaker’s audio channel. The translators’ speech can be routed to one or more participants.

Global phone service

Thirdly, Operator Connect Mobile allows you to make phone calls while travelling through multiple regions, countries or continents. Changing networks is inevitable during long-distance travel. Normally, the connection can be lost when the device switches networks. Microsoft partnered with the world’s largest providers to bridge the problem. Customers receive a single telephone number for uninterrupted calls across multiple networks.

Pre-recorded presentations

Finally, Cameo and recording studio — two existing PowerPoint features — are being combined and added to Teams. Cameo allows you to add camera feeds to PowerPoint presentations. Recording studio allows you to add a recording to PowerPoint presentations. The new combination lets you stream PowerPoint presentations with camera feeds for Teams participants.

When?

The beta of Teams Connected shared channels will be available before the end of the month. The availability of all other features is unknown.

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