The social network for internal corporate communications, Yammer – part of the Microsoft Office Division – is planning to add message translation capabilities to its platform.
The service would translate Yammer conversations into native languages, and is planned be launched by late spring 2013.
Microsoft expects that the message translation feature will help encourage greater adoption of the application internationally and encourage cross-cultural collaboration within and between organisations.
Microsoft Office Division general manager of Engineering, Yammer co-founder Adam Pisoni said that removing language as a barrier to cross-company collaboration can be a competitive game-changer for multinational organisations.
"This is another example of Yammer’s accelerated innovation following the Microsoft acquisition — we’re able to use Microsoft Translator to quickly deliver additional value to customers," Pisoni said.
The company plans to add a translate button and once the user presses it, the entire thread will be translated into the preferred, default language. The feature will include the ‘show original text’ button that will reconvert the conversation back to the initial language.
In June 2012, Microsoft acquired the enterprise social network Yammer for $1.2bn and integrated it into Microsoft’s Office division.
Yammer earlier introduced the Enterprise Graph feature, the new app directory and platform that make it easier to build social networking features into business applications.
