What you need to know
- Microsoft recently rolled out several features for Teams that improve the quality of meetings and calls.
- AI is used to cancel echoing, improve audio, and smooth out calls when two people speak at once.
- The new features for Teams are available starting today.
Microsoft just released a long list of new features for Teams to improve audio and video on the service. Teams now uses artificial intelligence to make meetings and calls feel more natural. Echo cancellation, “de-reverberation," background noise suppression, and real-time optimization for content sharing are just a handful of the new tools available.
Nicole Herskowitz, Vice President, Microsoft Teams, outlines the new features. "Disruptive echo effects, poor room acoustics, and choppy videos are some common issues that hinder the effectiveness of online calls and meetings. Through AI and machine learning... we’ve identified and are now delivering innovative enhancements in Microsoft Teams that improve such audio and video challenges," said Herskowitz.
Here's what's new for Microsoft Teams, as outlined by Microsoft:
- Echo cancellation
- “De-reverberation” adjusts for poor room acoustics
- Interruptibility for more natural conversations
- Background noise suppression
- Real-time screen optimization adjusts for the content you’re sharing
- AI-based optimization ensures your video looks great, even under bandwidth constraints
- Brightness and focus filters that put you in the best light
Even if you're using one of the best webcams, a room with poor acoustics can reduce audio quality. Microsoft's new AI features for Teams should alleviate this to some extent by canceling echoing, reducing reverberation, and allowing two people to speak at once. That last feature should also make it less awkward when trying to hold a normal conversation that involves back-and-forth communication.
Screen optimization on Teams can use machine learning to determine what type of video is being presented. It can then focus on the legibility of text or smoothness of playback depending on what's being shown.
Some of these features were announced at Build 2022, but they're available starting today.
