These new Microsoft Teams features will affect millions more people than anything else announced at Ignite 2024

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Meeting transcription within Teams will soon support multilingual meetings.

Microsoft Teams Google Play Store listing on an Android phone.
Microsoft Teams will support multilingual meetings for up to 51 spoken languages and 31 translation languages. (Image credit: Future)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft Teams will soon support several new translation features.
  • Meeting transcription within Teams will soon support 51 spoken languages and 31 translation languages.
  • Intelligent meeting recaps will appear as well after being generated automatically into someone's translation language of choice.
  • Microsoft also shared that Teams will be able to use Copilot to generate summaries of a file shared within a chat.

Microsoft Ignite 2024 kicked off today online, and it started with a flurry of announcements. A destkop running Windows 11 by streaming, improved Windows 11 Search powered by AI, and new IT admin tools that help save bricked PCs without requiring physical access made early headlines, but arguably the most important announcements from the conference center around Microsoft Teams. Hundreds of millions of people use the communication platform, so any major update to Teams affects a massive swath of people. That's especially the case given the global focus of upcoming updates to Teams.

Meeting transcription will soon support 51 spoken languages and 31 translation languages, greatly expanding the accessibility of meetings held on Teams. Teams will transcribe a meeting spoken in any of the supported languages without you having to select a specific language for the app to listen for.

In addition to meeting transcription working with multilingual meetings, live translated captions and live translated transcripts will work with multilingual meetings.

Microsoft also shared news about intelligent meeting recap translation at Ignite 2024. A new feature that will launch in 2025 for Teams desktop, web, and mobile will create recaps of meetings generated automatically in the translation language a user selects. It will also be possible to change the translation language of an intelligent meeting recap after the fact.

Copilot in Teams has a new feature on the way also. The feature will be able to analyze visual content that's shared onscreen through PowerPoint to the web. The tool will then be able to answer questions based on that content. Microsoft summarized that upcoming feature and its other announcements from Ignite in a blog post.

Most people will have to wait a bit longer to use the new Copilot in Teams features since they will launch in public preview in early 2025.

Finally, Microsoft Teams will integrate with Storyline, which is a feature that provides a singular location for people across an organization to share stories, videos, text, and other posts. Microsoft's Viva Engage already had a Storyline feature, but the concept is now on the way to Teams and will enter preview early next year.

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Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He's covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean's journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_.