Microsoft Teams for web gains background effects, CART captioning, and more

What you need to know

• Microsoft just announced several features for Teams on the web.
• The web version of Teams now supports background effects, CART captioning, and live captions in an additional 27 languages.
• Live transcripts are also available in 27 newly supported languages.

Microsoft Teams for the web has a new range of features that should enhance meetings on the platform. The web version of Teams now supports background effects, including blurring backgrounds to improve privacy. Several new options are available for captions and transcripts as well, including support for 27 new languages. Microsoft outlines the new features in a Tech Community post.

People can now view captions from a CART provider in the Teams meeting window. Previously, CART-provided captions would appear in a secondary window. CART, which stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation, delivers more accurate captions because it relies on text being spelled out phonetically in real-time by a professional. CCACptioning states that CART providers can be certified to type up to 260 words per minute with at least 98% accuracy.

Microsoft has a support document for users looking to implement CART captioning in meetings.

For those that use built-in live captions from Teams, the tool now has support for 27 additional spoken languages, including German, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, and Hindi. Live transcription in Teams also recently gained support for 27 additional languages.

Microsoft's blog post describes highlights how these features will help small businesses, though they will likely also benefit other types of users. All of the new options and tools should be available now, though new features often take some time to roll out to all Teams users.

Microsoft Teams - Free

As one of the most-used communication platforms around, Teams supports messaging, calls, video calls, and meetings. The platform just gained support for a long list of new captioning features to improve meetings.

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