Microsoft Outlook will make you think twice before sending your next email
Outlook tone detector should spare a few blushes
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Microsoftis building a new feature forOutlookthat should minimize the opportunity for miscommunications overemail.
According to anew entryin the company’s product roadmap, the Outlook web client will soon be equipped with a tone detector.
“Microsoft Editor in Outlook on the web will now offer writing refinements and suggest conversation tone,” the post explains.
Microsoft is still putting finishing touches on the new feature, which should become available to users next month.
Microsoft Outlook update
With the rise ofremote workingduring the pandemic, the ability to communicate effectively over email and text-based chat has become a vital attribute for employees. But for many people, this is easier said than done.
Without voice intonation, body language and facial prompts to add context to interactions, nuances are often lost and intended tone misinterpreted. Sarcasm, for example, is much more difficult to communicate over virtual channels, and feedback is difficult to frame without appearing overly critical.
Although details remain scant, it appears the new Outlook feature will intervene when someone is about to fire off a message that is likely to be misinterpreted in one way or another, as well as policing for errors of grammar and spelling.
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In theory, the Outlook tone detector will give users a chance to revisit messages, which may have been composed in a hurry or in a state of frustration, and make revisions if necessary - for the sake of diplomacy.
Microsoft has said nothing about the underlying technology that will make the new Outlook feature possible, butTechRadar Prohas asked for further clarification.
Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He’s responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.
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