Microsoft Teams Premium Is Taking These Features Behind a Paywall

Microsoft is launching Teams Premium in February.
James Martin/CNET

You or your organization will have to pay extra for some Microsoft Teams features soon. Microsoft is moving features like live translated captions to its new premium tier of the video meeting service, called Teams Premium, coming in February.

Microsoft writes in its Teams licensing agreement that the following Teams features will move to Teams Premium:

• Live translated captions.
• Timeline markers in Teams meeting recordings for when a user leaves or joins meetings.
• Custom organization Together Mode scenes.
• Virtual Appointments: SMS notifications.
• Virtual Appointments: Organizational analytics in the Teams admin center.
• Virtual Appointments: Scheduled queue view.

Teams subscribers won’t immediately lose access to these features, though. Microsoft writes that there will be a 30-day grace period after Teams Premium is made available to the public for people to purchase the service’s new tier. After the grace period, only Teams Premium subscribers will have access to the features listed above.

Microsoft previously announced that starting in December, organizations could try a 30-day free trial of Teams Premium. As part of the free trial, Microsoft gives organizations 25 licenses to assign to users. Once the trial period ends, those licenses stop functioning.

Microsoft said online that Teams Premium will launch in February, but it didn’t give an exact date. Microsoft also said it expects Teams Premium to cost $10 per profile monthly.

For more, check out the new Microsoft 365 tier or ways to get Microsoft 365 for free.

Now playing:
Watch this:

Hands-on With All of Microsoft’s New Surface Devices

9:29