Microsoft Rolls Out 'Stream' Video Platform for Businesses
The YouTube-like video-sharing tool for businesses that Microsoft launched in preview last year is now available worldwide.
Microsoft Stream lets you securely upload, share, manage, and discover videos in the workplace. As of today, it's available as a standalone service and rolling out to Office 365 Enterprise customers in 181 markets and 44 languages.
The Office 365 team also announced some new "intelligent features" for the service, including speech-to-text transcribed audio. Instead of having to watch a whole video just to get to the 15-second part you need, Stream lets you type in descriptive keywords to jump to any point those words are spoken.
Likewise, face detection lets you easily skip to a specific person's part. You'll see a clickable timeline indicating every place they appear. Finally, timecodes in the comments section are linked to text transcripts or a table of contents, so you can jump to a specific point in the video.
Microsoft wants you to think of Stream as a single destination for video in your organization. Users can visit Stream to search for and discover company videos, and upload their own. It's integrated with Office 365, so employees can share videos inside applications like SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Yammer. It also plays nice with Office 365 Groups, so every group has a designated channel, which should help keep video content organized.
Stream also offers IT management and security capabilities, including built-in encryption and authentication. Admins can add custom guidelines or require employees to accept terms before they can upload video to the service.
If you use Office 365, you'll find Stream in the Office app launcher, or you can visit the Stream website to log in. If you don't have Office 365, you can get a standalone plan or start a free trial.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.