If you’re unfamiliar with Microsoft Garage, it is a division of the company that allows collaborations across teams. Employees can interact with other Microsoft divisions on projects they are passionate about. Most the resulting apps start as an experiment, although some have become full fledged Microsoft services. Whether Group Transcribe will follow a similar path or ultimately be dropped remains to be seen. However, it is the kind of tool that is useful in the current climate of increasing remote work and video meeting apps. “This app uses a multi-device approach to provide real-time, high quality transcription and translation, so users can be more present and productive during in-person meetings and conversations,” Microsoft’s Lainie Huston said in a blog post.
How it Works
During a meeting, participants can opt into the group transcription. For those who decide to join in, they will also need the Group Transcribe application. One person begins the transcription and other join as invitees. Microsoft says a five-letter conversation code, or a QR code, gives those invitees access. When transcribing, the app takes note of all relevant conversations and also records who says what. All transcriptions are automatically saved for later review or use. What’s interesting about Group Transcribe is it seems to work for any meeting app. In other words, it’s not just for Microsoft Teams and will also work on Zoom and Google Meet. Furthermore, there is not sign-up requirement to use the app other than using the code to join a transcription. Microsoft says the app sends cloud data as part of speaker identification. Users can choose whether they want to share this information with Microsoft. The company says the only purpose of data is to help improve speech services. Tip of the day: Did you know that Windows 10´s Task Manager lets you set CPU affinity to claw back some resources from running apps and give selected apps higher priority. Our tutorial shows how you can use this helpful feature.
