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RSS feedSeptember 2023
OpenAI Whisper model in preview in Azure OpenAI service and Azure AI Speech
Target availability: Q3 2023
The OpenAI Whisper model has multi-lingual capabilities that offer precise and efficient transcription of human speech in 57 languages, and translation into English.
July 2023
Speech-to-text REST API v3.0 will be retired by 31 March 2026.
Target availability: Q1 2026
Speech-to-text REST API v3.0 will be retired by 31 March 2026. Update your code that uses Speech-to-text REST API. We recently updated the Speech-to-text REST API to version 3.1. Version 3.1 builds on the capabilities of the previous version and adds new features including language identification and multi-speaker diarization. With these enhancements, we'll retire version 3.0 of the API on 31 March 2026.
April 2023
Cognitive Services Custom Commands feature is being retired on April 30, 2026
Target retirement date: April 30, 2026
Custom Commands voice commanding solution will be retired on 30 April 2026.
October 2021
General availability: Announcing the release of Swiss German dialect speech recognition support
Microsoft speech service just released the de-CH locale that recognizes Swiss dialects as well as standard German as part of our speech to text offering. This enables the creation of smart speech solutions tailored to Switzerland’s market needs.
August 2021
Upgrade to Text-to-Speech Neural Voice by 31 August 2024
Target retirement date: August 31, 2024
All standard Text-to-Speech voices will be retired on 31 August 2024.
June 2021
Introducing the Ingestion Client for Azure Speech
Ingestion Client in conjunction with Azure Speech allows customers to transcribe audio files without any development effort. Whether you have few or millions of file Azure will transcribe those securely and quickly.
General availability: 6 new Locales added to Speech service to support speech transcription
Speech service has added Speech to Text support for 6 new languages and locales.
February 2021
Azure Batch Transcription and Customization Rest API v2 will be retired by 29 February 2024
Target retirement date: February 29, 2024
Update your code that uses Azure Batch Transcription and Customization Rest API.
June 2020
Azure Speech Services REST API v3.0 is now available
Azure Azure Speech Services REST API v3.0 is now available, along with several new features.
April 2020
Azure Cognitive Services—Neural Text to Speech has new voice styles
Neural Text to Speech now has new voice styles—newscast, customer service, and digital assistant. Tailor the voice of your apps and services to fit your unique scenario using these new styles, and further customize your voice to express different emotions to fit the context, like cheerfulness or empathy.
March 2020
101 services at FedRAMP High as Azure Government continues expanding capacity
21 new services added to FedRAMP High ATO, delivering on continued commitment to accelerating compliance for government customers
Azure Cognitive Services—Brazilian Portuguese added to neural Text to Speech
Target availability: Q1 2020
Francisca, our new Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR) voice, has been added to neural Text to Speech. Francisca features the same human-like natural prosody of the other neural Text to Speech voices on Azure.
December 2019
Azure Cognitive Speech Services meter ID changes
Effective February 1, 2020, the Resource GUIDs (also known as Meter IDs) of Custom Voice endpoint hosting in Speech Services will change. Billing will change from daily to hourly.
April 2019
Speech service region expansion to ten additional regions
The post is about informing customer of the ten new regions Speech is now available.
September 2018
Azure Cognitive Services—Speech Service now generally available
Speech service is now generally available, combining the following capabilities in one service: speech-to-text; text-to-speech; custom speech; and speech translation.
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