Today at Microsoft Build, we shared that Azure Communication Services will soon release new capabilities for developers to shape the workflows they need to deliver faster, enriched communication experiences to their customers. Join our sessions at Build: Azure Communication Services at Microsoft Build.
Enhancements to custom video app experiences connected to Microsoft Teams
We’re announcing a set of enhancements for developers building custom video apps and websites that connect to users on Microsoft Teams. Azure Communication Services and these new capabilities are especially tailored for business-to-customer (B2C) interactions where an external user (the customer) talks to an employee that is using Teams (the business). Developers can now embed these key capabilities, already available in Teams, to deliver an even richer and more engaging video and audio calling experience.
- Noise suppression during a call: Reduce unwanted background noises in an audio call or video meeting. ML-based audio noise suppression enhances the clarity and quality of voice communication and make the conversation more pleasant and productive. Learn more about noise suppression available in Azure Communication Services calling.
- Picture in Picture for iOS and Android: Enable customers in your native app to take video calls while simultaneously browsing the web or completing tasks in other apps. Detach the video calls from the original app and float it anywhere on screen.
- PowerPoint Live: Give both the presenter and audience an inclusive and engaging experience, combining the best parts of presenting in PowerPoint with the connection and collaboration of a Microsoft Teams meeting.
- Live Reactions: There are new APIs for end-users to react with emojis during the meeting: like, love, applause, laugh, surprise.
- File sharing during a meeting: In app-to-Team calls, Teams users can share SharePoint files in chat with users joining from a custom app or web experience.
- Real time transcription using Azure AI Speech: Receive text in real time from an ongoing call to ensure accurate record keeping of what was said and by who.
- Closed Captions: Promote accessibility by displaying text of the audio in video calls. Already available for app-to-Teams calls, this release adds support for closed captions in all app-to-app calls.
- Stream live audio using the Audio Streaming API: Extract raw audio in two formats.
- Mixed audio: Receive audio of all participants in a single stream.
- Unmixed audio: Isolate the audio of the different participants in the call and pick out the audio from specific participants.
In a world where customers need quick resolution and seamless interactions, Azure Communication Services’ extensibility with Microsoft Teams makes it easy to deliver rich customer experiences with these new enhancements. Learn more about Azure Communication Services interoperability with Teams.
But also note that most of these features: noise suppression, audio streaming, reactions, transcription, and closed captions, are all new Azure Communication Services capabilities available independent of Microsoft Teams. If you are building a video calling app without Teams, your app can still use these new features!
Copilot for Call Diagnostics
AI can help app developers across every step of the development lifecycle: designing, building, and operating. Developers with Microsoft Copilot for Azure (preview) can use Copilot within Call Diagnostics to understand and resolve a variety of calling issues. For example, developers can ask Copilot questions, such as:
- How do I run network diagnostics in Azure Communication Services VoIP calls?
- How can I optimize my calls for poor network conditions?
- What are the common causes of poor media streams in Azure Communication calls?
- The video on my call didn’t work, how do I fix the subcode 41048?
Developers use Call Diagnostics to understand call quality and reliability across the organization to deliver a great customer calling experience. There are various issues that can affect the quality of your calls, such as poor internet connectivity, software compatibility issues, and technical difficulties with devices.
Getting to the root cause of these issues can alleviate potentially frustrating situations for all call participants, whether they're a patient checking in for a doctor’s call, or a student taking a lesson with their teacher. Call Diagnostics enables developers to drill down into the data to identify root problems and find a solution. You can use the built-in visualizations in Azure Portal, or connect underlying usage and quality data to your own systems.
Learn more about Call Diagnostics.
WhatsApp message analysis through Azure OpenAI Service
Message analysis for WhatsApp, now in preview through Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Communication Services, enables businesses to extract meaningful insights from WhatsApp messages. This feature leverages language detection, translation, key phrase extraction, and intent recognition to enhance the 'user to business' communication flow.
Message analysis for WhatsApp is based on the ‘user to business’ workflows, where a user sends a message to the business WhatsApp supported channels, and the message is analyzed using Azure OpenAI Service model connected to that Azure Communication Services resource and helps with the workflow to provide more context to the messages that customer process and helps the customer to determine their actions.
This capability signifies a pivotal step towards harnessing the power of conversational data across various channels, starting with WhatsApp, to improve customer engagement and journey understanding.
Get started with Advanced Messaging for WhatsApp.
Learn more about Azure Communication Services
Azure Communication Services helps developers and organizations deliver intelligent communication experiences at the highest level of quality, security, and availability. In this blog, we covered some of the latest enhancements to video and audio calling, interoperability with Teams, Copilot in Call Diagnostics, and message analysis for WhatsApp. To learn more:
- Join our Build sessions: Azure Communication Services at Microsoft Build
- Read about Azure Communication Services: Azure Communication Services – Communication APIs | Microsoft Azure
- Twilio announced they will End of Life (EOL) their Programmable Video product. Azure Communication Services offers real-time video calling solutions for developers looking to migrate from their Programmable Video product.