Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter en blogs updates van 26-05-2024

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: In a busy frontline work environment, it can be challenging to hear Walkie Talkie transmissions. To address this, we’re launching live closed captions for any audible transmission in the Walkie Talkie app in Teams. This message applies to Teams Mobile (iOS, Android).

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396558.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, Walkie Talkie was an audio-only application without voice-to-text captions.

After this rollout, users will be able to select their preferred language for the Teams channel, and the Walkie Talkie will convert spoken words into text in real time, and display the text on the home screen of the Walke Talkie app. The captions will be concise and limited to two lines at a time, for easier reading on the go.

Screenshots

1. Users can enable Live captions in the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the Teams screen.

2. Users can select a caption language that will be applied to the user’s pinned channels.

3. If a user has enabled Listen to multiple channels, captions will be shown for any audible transmission. In this case, the user is receiving a transmission in the flooring channel.

4. Captions for all audible transmissions will be displayed in the primary channel as well.

5. After captions are turned on, users can use the same three-dot menu to update the Spoken language for their channels or to Turn off live captions.

After rollout, the closed captions feature will be available to all users to turn on if desired. Admins cannot turn off captions at the tenant level.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

A new feature gives audience engagement metrics on interactive Microsoft Stream videos. Users with edit access to a Stream video that contains links, polls, or callouts will be able to see the number of unique viewers and the percentage of those who viewed or clicked on interactive elements in the video, as well as the average number of interactions and average attention time. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396732

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in mid-May 2024 and expect to complete by mid-June 2024.

General Availability: We will begin rolling out in mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-July 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

These audience engagement metrics help video owners understand what content is most engaging. This new feature will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

In Microsoft Teams, you will be able to enhance hybrid meeting experiences with Teams Rooms and Copilot. We are extending the support of intelligent speaker to all certified microphones to enable Teams rooms to use the advanced technology called speaker recognition to analyze the distinct vocal characteristics of each speaker, such as pitch, tone, and speaking style, to create a voiceprint for each participant, akin to a fingerprint for their voice.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 394668

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out by mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

With speaker recognition, Teams Rooms on Windows can identify speakers during live transcription in shared meeting rooms, ensuring clear and precise voice capture for every participant. This allows you to effortlessly track who said what during the meeting through intelligent meeting recap and Copilot.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

While this functionality is still off by default, if you have already turned it on, be aware that it will enable this feature even for hardware that did not previously support it.

To take advantage of this exciting new capability, please refer to the documentation below for setup and instructions:

• Tenant Administration control for voice recognition (voice profile) in Teams Rooms – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Participants can set up a voice profile in minutes using the Teams Desktop application. Each person gets a unique voice signature, stored securely in your organization’s tenant in the Microsoft Cloud to assure that every contribution is accurately captured in every meeting – and helping you have a more productive meeting experience!

To enable face and voice enrollment for your organization, please find more information here:

• Overview of voice and face enrollment – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

In Microsoft Teams, users will be able to add their own custom emojis and reactions by uploading an image or GIF file, and their emojis and reactions will be accessible to all users in the tenant alongside the standard Teams emojis and reactions. Up to 5,000 custom emojis can be added per tenant.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80659.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 and expect to complete by early July 2024.

Worldwide, GCC: We will begin rolling out early July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.

GCC High, DoD: We will begin rolling out early August 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

This new custom emojis and reactions feature will be turned on by default. Users in the tenant will be able to upload emojis that are visible to the whole tenant. You can pre-emptively turn this feature off or restrict users who can create new emojis via the Teams Admin Center controls described below.

How do I use this feature?

Custom emojis and reactions will be found in the emoji and reaction menus in the Custom category. Users with upload abilities can add new content through the plus (+) button. Users with delete abilities can right-click any custom emoji to delete. Please note that deleted emojis may take up to 24 hours to reflect for all users in the tenant. Deleted emojis may take up to 24 hours to reflect for other users.

How do I manage this feature?

This feature can be managed through the Teams Admin Center. Admins will have access to the following controls:

• Turn the feature on/off for the whole tenant via the Messaging Settings page (on by default).
• Set which users can create new emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (on for all users by default).
• Set which users can delete emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (off for all users except admins by default).

The Teams Admin Center controls will be made available in early June. We recommend adjusting your settings as needed prior to the Targeted and Worldwide Releases in late June 2024 to ensure that they are in place when the feature rolls out.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This feature is on by default. If you would like to turn the feature off, please use the provided setting in the Messaging Settings page:

Messaging Settings

This feature allows all users to create new emojis by default and only allows admins to delete emojis by default. If you would like to adjust emoji creation and deletion permissions, please make the appropriate changes through the Messaging Policy groups:

Emoji Creation Setting (enabled for all users by default)

Emoji Deletion Setting (only enabled for admins by default)

Additional feature capabilities:

View custom emojis in the emoji menu

Press the plus (+) menu to select an image to upload

Set a name for your emoji

Right-click on an emoji to delete or to see the creator