Microsoft announced its group collaboration platform Teams almost a year and a half ago, but it was made generally available at this time last year. The company is celebrating the app"s one-year anniversary today, and it announced a number of features that are coming throughout the course of 2018.
One of the new features is Cortana integration. Users will be able to use voice commands to make a call, join a meeting, and more. There will also be inline message translation, so you can easily understand other participants that speak other languages. This will likely be powered by Microsoft Translator.
Video call participants will be able to blur the background on their calls, so the person you"re talking to won"t be able to see what"s behind you. This is certainly a useful feature for many businesses that might be worried about accidentally leaking sensitive information. A new cloud recording feature will, you guessed it, record the meeting with transcription and timecoding. Microsoft says that in the future, this will also include facial recognition.
Participants in a meeting will be able to share "a live video stream, photos, or their screen" from their smartphone. Microsoft didn"t go into greater detail on this one, such as if it will support AirPlay on iPhones, or just Miracast on other devices. Finally, you"ll be able to discover and add nearby Skype Room System devices to your meeting.
Microsoft also noted that Teams is now supported by a "full spectrum of calling and meeting room devices". These include large collaboration devices like the Surface Hub, meeting room systems like HP"s newly announced Elite Slice for Meeting Rooms G2, and more.
The features announced today will arrive later on this year.