Cortana is coming to Microsoft Teams Rooms

While Cortana may be dead on mobile, Microsoft's digital assistant is alive and well on Windows 11 and will soon be making an appearance in Microsoft Teams. While Cortana was first introduced in 2001 in Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox, the smart AI build finally came to Windows Phone and Windows 10 PCs in 2014 as a digital assistant. .

Much like Apple's Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Siri, Microsoft created Cortana to help Windows users set reminders, search the web, and more.

But now, according to a series of new Microsoft 365 roadmap posts, the software giant is bringing Cortana to Microsoft Teams Rooms. With Microsoft Teams Rooms, businesses can set up a meeting room with a number of devices, including screens, webcams, and microphones, so an organization can use video conferencing software as a group instead of having to use their own laptops.

In the first Microsoft 365 roadmap update, Microsoft explained that “Cortana voice activation will be enabled by default on newly created Microsoft Teams Rooms solutions” starting this month.

This means Teams users will be able to shout voice commands to their Teams Rooms devices to initiate a video call, change settings and more. Fortunately, administrators will be able to adjust this setting to disable voice activation. At the same time, Microsoft has updated the iconography of Cortana that appears on the front of a room screen and in the console UI in a Microsoft Teams Room, according to the second update.

Not yet available in French

Finally, in the third update, the company explained that Cortana will support additional languages ​​on Teams devices that are set to different local languages. Currently, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, Indian English and British English are supported.

While voice activation can certainly come in handy in shared meeting rooms designed for video conferencing, professionals may not be too keen on the idea of ​​a video game character speaking during their meetings. in camera.