Microsoft is trying to eliminate one of the biggest video conferencing problems&hellip with science TechRadar Skip to main content TechRadar is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's why you can trust us. Microsoft is trying to eliminate one of the biggest video conferencing problems&hellip with science By Joel Khalili published 16 September 2022 Microsoft is delving into the 'science behind interruptions' (Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Antonio Guillem) Audio player loading… Microsoft is exploring a new avenue of research that could help address one of the most common video conferencing issues: interruptions and pauses. As explained in a new blog post (opens in new tab), researchers at Microsoft recently trialled a new method for charting interruptions over the course of a meeting, by analyzing anonymized versions of call transcripts. To help identify useful patterns, the team mapped data points like speech duration, number of words spoken and frequency of interjection onto a timeline. According to Sean Rintel, one of the Microsoft scientists, "you could clearly find patterns of people taking longer turns or interrupting on a regular basis." Hybrid meeting headaches Microsoft has long been aware of the problems unique to the digital meeting format. Alongside attendees forgetting to unmute themselves, the difficulty of interjecting in a seamless and polite way is among the most common issues, only made worse by the shift to hybrid working. "If you are in a lot of hybrid meetings, you're familiar with the awkward overlaps and pauses that can riddle those digital interactions," wrote Microsoft. "The chat thread and the hand-raise function help, but as (some) people return to work together in person, side conversations in the on-site conference room and office setups that aren't equipped for a hybrid experience add to the complexity." The hope is that studies like the one recently conducted by Microsoft will go some way to resolving these complexities and helping hybrid meetings flow more naturally.Read more> Microsoft Teams is getting an under-the-hood upgrade to boost performance > Our list of the best collaboration software out there > This simple Microsoft Teams update could save you a ton of hassle By mapping out interactions over Microsoft Teams calls, for example, it may be possible to determine the optimal size of meeting for maximal inclusivity. Data on the kinds of employee most likely to dominate conversations or interrupt others could also be used to inform training sessions on meeting etiquette. Although Microsoft was careful to acknowledge that this strand of research is still "in its infancy", the company believes customers could benefit from data dashboards that help analyse the level of inclusivity of digital meetings "in the not-too-distant future". "Ultimately what would be really interesting here is giving companies, teams, and organizations the opportunity to run experiments themselves, helping teams understand their own processes so they can work better in ways we can never anticipate," said Rintel.Complete your video conferencing setup with the best business webcams and best headsets for conference calls Joel KhaliliNews and Features EditorJoel 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. See more Software news Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to theTechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. MOST POPULARMOST SHARED1You may not have to sell a body part to afford the Nvidia RTX 4090 after all2Blizzard made me explain Overwatch 2 smurfing to my mum for nothing3Apple October launches: the new devices we might see this month4Google's AI editing tricks are making Photoshop irrelevant for most people5One of the world's most popular programming languages is coming to Linux1Best laptops for designers and coders 2The iPhone 14 Pro is made of the wrong stuff; the Pixel 7 proves that to me3Stop saying Mario doesn't have an accent in The Super Mario Bros. Movie4Microsoft Teams users are using it for a really bad reason, so stop now5iPhone 15 tipped to come with an upgraded 5G chip Technology Magazines (opens in new tab)● (opens in new tab)The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviewsFrom$12.99 (opens in new tab)View (opens in new tab)