What’s new with video in Stream, OneDrive, and SharePoint
Video on demand and meeting recordings have become paramount to helping hybrid and distributed teams get work done. With video on demand, you can take required training, view a previously recorded event, watch a message from leadership, or find internal how-to content when you need it. And, when busy schedules or multiple time zones make meetings difficult, you can catch up on what you missed by watching a Teams meeting recording. Video on demand creates invaluable flexibility and freedom to get your work done, on your time.
Today we’re announcing a set of features in Stream (on SharePoint) that enhance your video viewing and recording experiences across Microsoft 365. While some of these features have been available in Stream (Classic), they are now available across many apps in Microsoft 365 when you upload videos to SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, or Yammer. These enhancements will help you use video more seamlessly in the flow of work. Let’s take a look.
Video captions and transcripts for all
Earlier this year we introduced transcripts with speaker attribution for Microsoft Teams meeting recordings. Today, we’re happy to announce that you can quickly generate a transcript in English for any video file stored in SharePoint or OneDrive at your work or school, 1 and soon you will be able to generate transcripts in 20 other supported languages. Transcripts and captions are highly useful for people who work in noisy environments or who have hearing disabilities. Transcripts also foster productivity by making it easy to scan and find the most relevant content. And, by clicking on the text in the transcript, you can quickly jump to respective points in the video. The transcript can also show up as closed captions on your videos, which viewers can turn on or off by selecting the CC option in the player controls during playback. Lastly, transcripts assist in search. Searching in Microsoft 365 finds videos not only based on title and description, but also on the text in the transcript. Learn more about viewing, editing, and managing video transcripts and captions.
Video transcripts appear in the transcripts pane of the Stream player. Closed captions can be viewed by toggling closed captions to “on.”
Offline caption and transcript editing
Many customers have asked for the ability to edit video transcripts so they can ensure captions appear precisely on screen. Now you can edit closed captions and transcripts for any video stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. To edit a transcript, you download the existing transcript file, edit it offline, and then upload it back to the video. While manually managing transcripts like this is an important first step, we’re also working to enable editing directly in the transcription pane by the end of the year. Learn more about editing video captions and transcripts.
Skip the noise or skip forward
Stream’s new noise suppression feature dampens background noise in audio and video files so you can focus on the speaker’s voice. If you recorded a video in a noisy environment, you can set this as the default for your viewers, so they can hear your voice better. Or, viewers can turn on noise suppression themselves if they want to isolate the speaker’s voice from background music or other noise. The Stream player also now features a button that skips you 10 seconds forward or backwards in the video.
Jump right to the part of a video you want to watch with chapters
You can now manually add chapters on all videos and audio files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. Chapters divide a video into sections, each with a preview thumbnail and title. These help viewers quickly identify and jump right to the part of the content they need. Adding chapters is also helpful for people who want to quickly understand what the video or audio file covers. To add chapters to your video or audio file, open the video settings pane in the player and toggle on the Chapters option. Then, select “Chapters” from the side pane, navigate to the part of the video or audio file you want to start a chapter, and select “Add new chapter” to begin building the chapter list. Learn more about using manual chapters with videos on Stream (on SharePoint).
Adding chapters to your videos helps viewers easily navigate to a section of the video that is important to them.
Collaborate with comments on video and audio files
Now you can add comments to video and audio files just like you would in an Office document. Commenting is especially valuable for asynchronous collaboration, providing feedback, or asking questions about the shared content. Comments are just the beginning of our collaboration features for video. We’re also working on time-synced comments and @mentions, so you can easily draw someone’s attention to a specific part of a video or audio file without them having to scan for what they need. We expect to launch these two features by the end of the year. Learn more about adding comments to a video.
Leave comments on videos to provide feedback, ask questions, or make suggestions.
Add custom thumbnails, titles, and descriptions to video and audio files
Thumbnails are the preview images for your video or audio file. They telegraph the content of the video or audio file and entice viewers to click the play button. You can now set a custom thumbnail for any video or audio file stored in SharePoint or OneDrive. Anyone with edit access to a video can upload an image or pick a frame from the video. In addition to custom thumbnails, anyone with edit access can also add or edit a title and description for the video or audio file. The title and description provide more context for your file when it appears in search and when it’s played. Descriptions are rich text, so you can add bold, italics, underline, bullets, and hyperlinks. Learn more about setting thumbnails, titles, and descriptions.
You can now add custom thumbnails, titles, and descriptions to videos in OneDrive and SharePoint.
The above-mentioned features are also available on Teams meeting recordings (stored in OneDrive or SharePoint).2 You can find links to recordings in the meeting chat or on the Stream start page for any meeting that you were invited to and that was recorded. Also, in August Teams will debut video clip. This feature allows you to easily record and send a short, lightweight video message in chat, making a lasting impression and capturing a viewer’s attention as opposed to plain text.
Share videos externally with anyone links or guests
If you need to share a video with people outside of your organization, you can do that today with Stream (on SharePoint). When your video or audio file is uploaded to OneDrive or SharePoint, all the same permissions and sharing options as other files in Microsoft 365 are also available for video and audio files. Guest members to a Teams team, Yammer community, or SharePoint site will have the same audio and video player experiences for any audio and video files uploaded there. If your organization allows anyone links, you can share a link to an audio or video file with anyone. 3
A new home for video in Microsoft 365
Last year we announced that the new dedicated home for videos within Microsoft 365 is alongside your everyday Office apps at stream.office.com. From here you can find recommended, shared, and recent videos from across your organization. Now we are building upon this simple, comprehensive video discovery experience. In the coming months you will be able to keep a list of favorites, create playlists, and create new videos from stream.office.com. With the video creation experience you will be able to record from your camera or your screen, adjust your background, add effects, trim your video and then save it to OneDrive.
Stream Web App
Soon, we plan to introduce the Stream web app, which will improve viewing and publishing of video/audio files that are stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. The app launches in a browser when you open a video or audio file from stream.office.com, Teams, the embedded player, or when you open a share link.5
As a video player, the app works seamlessly with Office.com and brings key features of the Stream (Classic) to the Stream (on SharePoint) playing experience. Using it as a publication tool, you can add a title and description to your audio/video file, set a custom thumbnail, add chapters, generate a transcript, share videos, and even share your video at a specific time code. We expect the Stream Web app to begin rolling out to customers in August and to be available worldwide by September with GCC rollout following in October.
The Stream Web App is both a player and a publication tool.
Stream mobile app (beta)
We’re revamping the Stream for iOS and Android mobile apps. We plan to launch the beta version of the mobile app in the coming months. The app makeover will give you seamless access to your Stream (Classic) and Stream (on SharePoint) content along with a personalized home feed and a richer video playback experience. The new app will also include organization-wide video search, easy to find Teams meeting recordings, and video download for offline playback.
The Stream mobile app will give you seamless access to your video content on Stream (Classic) and Stream (on SharePoint)
Migrating from Stream (Classic) to Stream (on SharePoint)
For those ready to migrate content from Stream (Classic) to Stream (on SharePoint) we expect to launch the public preview of our migration tool in late- August 2022. When the migration tool preview goes live, you will find it as a tab in the Stream (Classic) admin center. For more information on using the migration tool see Migrate your videos and Migration tool details.
The Stream admin tool migrates audio and video content from Stream (Classic) to Stream (on SharePoint)
When the migration tool enters public preview, you will have access to the Stream (Classic) video metadata report that gives you inventory of all the videos in your tenant. You can use this report to plan which videos you want to migrate to Stream (on SharePoint).
The Stream admin metadate report will give you a report of all the Stream (Classic) videos in your tenant.
New for admins and SharePoint developers
Soon, when users click to play a video in the Hero web part section of a SharePoint site, the video will play inline. This feature enables users to watch a video without being taken off the SharePoint page, learn more. Additionally, you’ll be able to gather and display all of the videos from a SharePoint site collection in one place. This feature is particularly helpful for educators who tend to share videos in Teams channels, learn more.
IT admins can now configure and set Teams meeting recording expirations to better manage storage and file governance, learn more. Additionally, users can extend the expiration date of meeting recordings if needed. Also, admins will soon be able to direct Stream app tile launcher to Stream.office.com.
All of the features shared above are just the beginning of the rich video experiences that Stream (on SharePoint) will bring to your everyday apps in Microsoft 365. Let us know what you think. Comment below or share and vote on ideas in the Stream feedback portal.
1 Edit permission is required on the video files to generate a transcript.
2 Requires Teams for Work
3 Requires administrator to enable external sharing for the organization or for a particular SharePoint site.
4 This feature may be turned off for your account. If you don't see the option, please contact your admin.
5 Currently videos stored in OneDrive and SharePoint will open and play in the OneDrive Player, we expect these files to open in the Stream Web app by October.
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