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September-October developments


Microsoft Teams has announced the Language Interpretation feature as a significant improvement in language interpretation capabilities. Interpreters can now easily identify the language they translate into with a single click. The two pre-selected options at the bottom of the screen allow interpreters to select and highlight the language of their choice quickly.

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Copilot now contains meeting chat responses that relate to team meetings. It can preview voice and chat to provide a complete discussion overview.

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(Source: Microsoft Teams)

Teams now send a summary of meetings to Outlook after they end. In Outlook, users can open the meeting event to see what happened during the meeting. This includes a link to the summary page, transcript, recording, notes, shared files, whiteboard, and meeting details.

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(Source: Microsoft Teams)

During the meeting or event, organisers can now allow presenters to lead Q&A sessions and publish questions for all participants. With this latest version, which enables participants to concentrate on the conversation and interact with the audience, users can elevate their town hall Q&A experience. Participants can vote on questions they would like presenters to address, and organisers can archive, sort, and filter questions based on keyword searches.

One of the new features of Teams is the ability to connect locally using ultrasonic signals. Using ultrasonic signals generated by nearby Teams rooms allows the device to identify and show a list of open rooms on the screen before joining. This eliminates manual input by offering a precise and straightforward method of adding the relevant room to the schedule.

In the latest update, a new dynamic video tile adjusts its size based on the number of people in the room. It is the same size as a single participant when alone and doubles when there are two or more people. In the latest Google Meetings update, administrators can enable meeting recordings, transcripts, and the ‘Take notes for me’ feature by default for new meetings. Meeting hosts and co-hosts can adjust these settings within the calendar invite or during the meeting.

Gemini users with Google Workspace can add watermarks to content and video feeds during Google Meet sessions, providing an added layer of security against unauthorised copying and sharing. These watermarks discreetly display the meeting code and the viewer’s email address over shared content and video feeds. Hosts and co-hosts can easily enable watermarking for all participants during meetings, enhancing overall content protection.

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(Source: Google Meet)

Starting this month, Zoom is introducing a seamless way for users to manage personal meeting notes without interrupting screen sharing. Users can create a new document or open an existing Zoom doc during a meeting, allowing them to take private notes while continuing to share their screen.

In addition, anonymous users can now access collaborative documents with view-only permissions. By granting view-only access, Zoom maintains document security while fostering transparency and improving engagement, ensuring that anonymous participants can follow along without being able to make edits.

Are you planning an online meeting or event and need urgent advice?

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Our ConfTech Help desk provides countries and organisations with immediate advice on how to organise and run online meetings and events. Get in touch with us at conftech@diplomacy.edu.

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