Forum Discussion
Laura_Morgan
Microsoft
Microsoft[Released to GA] Now in public preview: Language Interpretation
Description
Language interpretation will allow interpreters to convert what the speaker says into another language in real time without disrupting the original flow of delivery of the speaker. This will allow more inclusive meetings, where participants who may not speak the same language can fully collaborate with each other.
Flighting status
Available now for everyone in Public Preview. This feature has been released. Please see this link for more details:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/language-interpretation-is-now-generally-available-ga-in/ba-p/3628382
How to enable
Schedule interpreters when creating a new meeting
- Organizer creates a new meeting.
- Organizer adds their interpreters to the invite list on the meeting creation form.
- In Meeting Options, the Organizer toggles “Enable language interpretation” ON, selects the interpreter they’ve invited, and then assigns the interpreters to a language pair.
Note: Today, the interpretation option is available in the meeting options after the meeting has been created/saved. Once saved, open the meeting options in a browser and add/edit interpreters there. We are working on improving this create flow so you can edit interpreters directly on meeting page before saving. This updated experience will be out in preview soon.
Participant experience listening to interpreters during a meeting
- Meeting Participant selects a language channel to listen to during a meeting that has interpretation enabled.
- After selecting a language to listen to, participants should hear the interpreter at a louder volume than the main speaker.
- Participants switch between language channels and listening to the main speaker.
Interpreter experience
- When interpreters join a meeting, they should be able to immediately start interpreting for the meeting.
- Interpreters should hear the main speaker.
Note: If you need information about enabling the public preview itself, see “Enable the public preview for Teams” below.
Supported clients and platforms
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Windows 10 |
macOS |
iOS |
Android |
Linux |
Chrome |
Firefox |
Safari |
Edge |
Internet Explorer |
| yes | yes |
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Known issues and limitations
- In this iteration of the feature, Organizers can only schedule interpreters unidirectionally for a language pair (e.g. interpreters can only be assigned to the English to Spanish direction. There will need to be a second interpreter to handle the Spanish to English direction).
- Irish/Gaeilge is currently under development and will be available before public release
- Interpreters cannot be external users, this is being worked on
- Currently, the interpreters must be selected before the meeting begins. This is being worked on.
Enable your Teams client for the public preview
- First, IT admins need to set an update policy that turns on Show preview features. Learn how at Public preview in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs.
- Users then choose to join the public preview individually. See Get early access to new Teams features - Office Support (microsoft.com) for instructions.
Summary of public preview features
For a history of features in the Teams public previews, see Microsoft Teams Public Preview - Microsoft Tech Community
Send us your feedback
Got feedback on features in the public preview or other areas of Teams? Let us know straight from Teams via Help > Give feedback.
Thank you,
Preview Team
Quality & Customer Obsession, Microsoft Teams
- Hello,
I would like to ask if there will be possibility to hear only translated language. The problem is when a participant selects a language they hear both languages. We want to mute the origin language, is this possible? We tested this functionnality today at work, but we were a little bit confused.
For our 3 people was in the meeting :
- Organizer (original language - main speaker)
- Interpreter
- Attendee
So the Organizer was able to hear the attendee only
The interpreter was able to hear the organizer and the attendee
The Attendee was able to hear the organizer and the interpreter
The last point was the most confusing because it was not possible to understanding anything because organizer and interpreter was speaking at the same time without any volume difference. It think if the attendee want to hear the interpreter and volume of the organizer should be mute or at least lower than the interpreter.
Is there something to set we didn't correctly ?
Any feedback on that ?
Thanks
- This is unfortunately the way the system works at the moment. The organizer in the main room didn't have access to interpretation as there was only one interpreter (probably working on a channel which only goes in one direction). Unfortunately, the system is kind of unusable at this point for two-way interpreation unless you have two seperate interpreters working on two different channels and the organizer sets their languages to the other channel. So basically, if you only want to work with one interpreter, you can only have interpretation in one direction, which leads to a very one-sided conversation. I hope that the officially released version of the function includes more options, at the moment, it's not really usable for us.
Laura_Morgan Is the interpretation function available also for the users connecting over browser? Seems to me that it is not working properly or I did something wrong when testing.
Sinead_MurphyUnderstanding that this feature is almost completely rolled out, where are the Support documents for it? Nothing has been published so far...How to disable this feature for the tenant . I dont find the option in teams meeting policy. Please advice
- Apart from third party service providers offering alternatives to this Microsoft solution, is there anyone from Microsoft to respond to the issues raised with this new functionality?
Getting very frustrating speaking into the abyss 🙂 We already set up some tests with our professional interpreters. Location Brussels (Belgium)
We also noticed the volume-automatism, it seems good. The audio quality is super.
Some feedback:
- making it possible to change your channel as end user during the meeting, not having to reconnect to change
- making it possible for the translators to switch their interpretation direction (f.e. FR->NL to NL->FR) with simple button clicks
Next days we are setting up our rooms (with translator boots) for hybrid setup with this system with system accounts.
We waited long for this feature, it is already great and easy for end users internal & external!
Steven10Wow... this is big and long due in MS Teams. Do you have any estimate on when this will be rolled out?
- Agreed, a toggle button for interpreters to switch languages is sorely needed. Also, there doesn't seem to be an option to allow for relais, since the interpreters only hear the floor and not other channels.
- How to disable this feature for the tenant . I dont find the option in teams meeting policy. Please advice
Hi Steven10
Did you say that you are seeing the audio of the other participant drop when the translator is speaking ("Audio Ducking")? As in our tests, we are not seeing that.
No volume changes, the translator is a little higher than everyone else, but you can very clearly hear both and a little too much. So you hear the translator and the patricipant at similar volumes and it is just hard to follow a meeting like this. It just sounds like two participants talking over eachother. If you are seeing the volume of the other participants duck lower when the translator speaks and then retrun to normal when they stop, I would be interested to hear?
Laura_Morgan can you please explain where to enable this feature?
Tenant admins should ensure the policy for language interpretation is enabled in order for their users to be able to schedule meetings with language interpreters assigned. If admins do not want to this feature to be available they will need to turn this feature off via policy.
Best regards
Max
Nicholas BurkhammerMaxMarra , see the -LiveInterpretationEnabledType parameter at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/skype/set-csteamsmeetingpolicy?view=skype-ps.
Hope that's what you are looking for.
MaxMarra As you can see, the MS solution is still extremely limited. If you are interested in having Interpretation in MS Teams, with access for any participant (within you tenant or not, with or without MS license), please have a look at https://akouo.io - we provide the most complete and simple to use solution for MS Teams interpretation on the market.
Hi Laura_Morgan,
We will be happy to be part of testing. I own a large interpreting agency operating globally with offices in England, Montenegro and Turkey.
Best,
Umit
- Hi Umit,
Have you check out out solution?
We would love to provide you a demo.
https://www.akouo.io
Cheers
JP
Laura_Morgan has this gone live, or is it still just in public preview?
