Microsoft Teams will soon have “Intelligent Translation” feature

Yesterday we reported on an exciting new AI model from Meta that the company has made available as open-source and that can translate a massive 200 languages on its own. Today we have news from Microsoft that might not be so seismic in the long term but that right now will make a lot of people’s lives a lot easier. Microsoft Teams is getting an intelligent translation feature.

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Microsoft likes to publish the roadmap of future features coming to Microsoft 365 apps and programs. This includes the likes of Word and Excel, but it also includes programs like Microsoft Teams. A recent Microsoft 365 Roadmap entry indicates that Microsoft Teams on Android will soon be getting an intelligent translation feature.

According to the Roadmap entry, the feature will prompt users to translate messages that are not in their own language. This will help facilitate meetings and chats between people that speak different languages.

Microsoft 365 Roadmap entries are sparse affairs, as you can see in the screenshot above. They don’t actually say very much. It does, however, say that these new translation capabilities should be available by the end of August this year and that they will be rolling out on a General Availability basis.

Whereas Meta’s announcement indicates a shifting of the landscape and a step up in translation capabilities for many languages that have so far only been translated by machines badly, this move from Microsoft could go a long way to facilitating intercultural relationships and cross-language communications right now. If you would like to see a world where everybody is able to communicate with everybody else effortlessly and seamlessly, the last couple of days have brought a lot of great news.

Microsoft Teams users may also be interested in our deep dive into everything you can do on Microsoft Teams or our dedicated Microsoft Teams News Channel that will keep you up to date on all the latest news about the app.