The Microsoft Teams online meeting service includes live translation features, which allow professional interpreters to translate a Teams speaker's speech into another language. Today, the company is adding a new feature to the Microsoft Teams Preview program that takes that translation support one step further.
In a post on the Microsoft 365 Insider blog, the company is letting those users test out what it calls bidirectional translation support. Microsoft says:
With bidirectional support for language interpretation in Teams, an interpreter can now switch the translation direction between two languages by selecting an indicator on their Teams screen. This new capability eliminates the need for a second interpreter or additional device when going back and forth between two languages.
With this new feature, an interpreter who enters a Teams meeting will see a notification alerting them to the language translation indicator, which will be found at the bottom of the Teams app. The interpreter then sees the language they are translating to the rest of the meeting attendees at the bottom of the screen as part of a button that also has a second language selection. For example, the button could show one for German and the other for Chinese.
Microsoft says:
The interpreter can select the other button to switch the language they are translating into. They can continue switching back and forth during the meeting as needed.
The new feature is currently available to test for members of the Microsoft Teams Public Preview or for people who sign up to get Microsoft 365 Targeted releases. To check out the bidirectional translation support, they must all use the new Teams app for Windows or macOS. At the moment, there's no word on when this new transition feature in Teams will become generally available for all of its users.
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