Microsoft Teams will now tell you how to reply to that tricky message

A new update to Microsoft Teams could make replying to awkward messages a lot less painful than before.

The video conferencing platform is working on an upgrade that will offer “suggested replies” in chats on Teams.

Already a common sight on the likes of Gmail, SMS messages and more, the suggested replies feature will examine the context of the previous messages and provide a couple of possible responses, handling all the brain work for you.

Microsoft Teams replies

In the Microsoft 365 roadmap entry detailing the update, the company notes that Teams will use “assistive AI” in order to analyze previous messages and create the suggested responses. 

Users will get up to three recommended responses to choose from, and will be able to send their choice with just a click.

The feature is still listed as “in development” for the time being, but Microsoft has assigned a general availability date of April 2022, so we could see a launch within the next few weeks.

Upon release, the feature will be available to all Microsoft Teams users across the world using the desktop platform.

The feature is the latest in a series of upgrades for Microsoft Teams as the company looks to make it an indispensable hybrid working tool.

Recently, Microsoft Teams has seen a pair of add-ons introduce real-time translation, giving users access to a large network of professional interpreters, who dial into meetings on request. Once a session has begun, users can switch between the original audio feed and the interpreter’s translation via a drop-down menu.

Microsoft Teams also recently announced it is opening up its live captions feature to a wider pool of users in an effort to improve accessibility standards. Until now, the live captions feature has been gated behind a registration wall, so if someone was joining a meeting as a guest via a link provided by the host, they would have to make do without the accessibility feature.

Microsoft Teams continues to go from strength to strength, with the latest figures from the company showing that the service now boasts over 270 million monthly active users.

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