[Released to GA] Now in public preview: Language Interpretation

[Laura_Morgan]

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...

 

How to enable

Schedule interpreters when creating a new meeting

1. Organizer creates a new meeting.
2. Organizer adds their interpreters to the invite list on the meeting creation form.
3. 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

1. Meeting Participant selects a language channel to listen to during a meeting that has interpretation enabled.
2. After selecting a language to listen to, participants should hear the interpreter at a louder volume than the main speaker.
3. Participants switch between language channels and listening to the main speaker.

Interpreter experience

1. When interpreters join a meeting, they should be able to immediately start interpreting for the meeting.
2. 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

Windows 10	macOS	iOS	Android	Linux	Chrome	Firefox	Safari	Edge	Internet Explorer
yes	yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

 

Known issues and limitations

1. 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).
2. Irish/Gaeilge is currently under development and will be available before public release
3. Interpreters cannot be external users, this is being worked on
4. Currently, the interpreters must be selected before the meeting begins. This is being worked on.

Enable your Teams client for the public preview

1. 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.  
2. 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

[#2]

When you say "Irish/Gaeilge is currently under development and will be available before public release" it only means that this language will appear among the selection options, right?

The way it is written may pass the impression that Live Interpretation is an AI-based service.
Please clarify that,
Thanks

[#3]

I'd really would like to see the feature of live translated automatic subtitles like it is available in PowerPoint Present Live. We have in-language subtitles in Teams, so translation shouldn't be hard (for the transcript as well).
Of course, CART captions are nice too as well as language interpretation....

Anyway I know it is not part of this conversation really, but does anyone know any caption tool which does support the Teams CART caption API?

[#4]

@Laura_Morgan 

Hello, I am on Public Preview, but I dont see this feature turned on. Do we need everyone in the public preview to have this feature on?

Thank you very much 

Ryan

[#5]

@Jin Chen

You need to be in public preview in the web browser as well (it needs to be activated there separately and also works fine in edge browser

[#6]

Thanks. Good to know.

[#7]

Hi @Laura_Morgan 

We have been testing this feature and find it a welcome, needed, addition to Teams. We have found that though the interpreter’s volume is slightly higher, the volume of the participant speaking the language that is being translated remains constant (and too high). So the listening participants hear both at a very similar volume and this is just confusing.

We would expect that when the Interpreter is speaking (has something to translate) then the volume of the other participant speaking at the same time (the speech being translated) would be automatically lowered. Once the translator stops talking, this other participant on the call would have their volume restored.

Are there any plans to implement the solution in this way (automatic lowering of other volume when translator is speaking), or will the other participants volume be left as it is?

Regards,

[#8]

@Laura_Morgan has this gone live, or is it still just in public preview?

[#9]

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 

[#10]

Hi Umit,
Have you check out out solution?
We would love to provide you a demo.
https://www.akouo.io
Cheers
JP

[#11]

@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

[#12]

@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.

[#13]

@MatthiasRodler maybe check out Interprefy's machine-translated captioning feature for Microsoft Teams meetings: https://www.interprefy.com/solutions/integrations/microsoft-teams

[#14]

Interprefy's interpreting add-on for teams does exactly that: https://www.interprefy.com/solutions/integrations/microsoft-teams

[#15]

@Laura_Morgan 

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!

[#16]

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?

[#17]

@MaxMarra , 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.

[#18]

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 🙂

[#19]

I would like this better as well, auto translated subtitles would be way better than having to schedule a person.

[#20]

@SalomeFonseca 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ww/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=94843