Microsoft could soon alleviate some of the worst annoyances of video chats. The Verge notes that Microsoft is releasing AI-based voice quality updates that should help all call participants to be heard clearly. New machine learning models can not only cancel out echoes, but even reduce the chances of awkward interruptions by eliminating echo-related overlays. This won’t stop rude people from hijacking the conversation, but it can help you raise an important point without completely interrupting someone else’s thinking.
Machine learning technology compensates for echoes using a combination of approximately 100,000 simulated rooms and training from 30,000 hours of speaking. Microsoft also paid regular Teams users to record their voices to help them recognize thousands of different devices. And most importantly, the processing is done on your device. This helps Microsoft reduce costs, of course, but also ensures that echo reduction occurs quickly and across a wider range of users.
The feature is now available after months of testing. It comes with some other updates, including AI enhancements for limited-bandwidth video calling and text display optimizations. This probably won’t make you choose Teams against rivals like Zoom or Google Meet alone, but it could tip the scales if virtual meetings are common in your workplace.
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