Services
Affected Platforms
Summary
Microsoft Teams is introducing live closed captions for the Walkie Talkie app, aiding frontline workers in noisy environments. This feature will be available in June 2024, with real-time voice-to-text captions in selected languages, displayed on the Walkie Talkie app's home screen. Admins cannot disable this feature. Users should be informed to prepare for this update.
Details
Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: In a busy frontline work environment, it can be challenging to hear Walkie Talkie transmissions. To address this, we're launching live closed captions for any audible transmission in the Walkie Talkie app in Teams. This message applies to Teams Mobile (iOS, Android).
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396558.
General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.
How this will affect your organization:
Before this rollout, Walkie Talkie was an audio-only application without voice-to-text captions.
After this rollout, users will be able to select their preferred language for the Teams channel, and the Walkie Talkie will convert spoken words into text in real time, and display the text on the home screen of the Walke Talkie app. The captions will be concise and limited to two lines at a time, for easier reading on the go.
Screenshots
1. Users can enable Live captions in the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the Teams screen.
2. Users can select a caption language that will be applied to the user's pinned channels.
3. If a user has enabled Listen to multiple channels, captions will be shown for any audible transmission. In this case, the user is receiving a transmission in the flooring channel.
4. Captions for all audible transmissions will be displayed in the primary channel as well.
5. After captions are turned on, users can use the same three-dot menu to update the Spoken language for their channels or to Turn off live captions.
After rollout, the closed captions feature will be available to all users to turn on if desired. Admins cannot turn off captions at the tenant level.
What you need to do to prepare:
This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.