Change the default language for greetings and emails
Cloud Voicemail uses various language settings to play greetings, generate transcription translations, and generate voicemail messages. The language settings can be specified by default on the tenant level, by policy, or individually on a given user.
Greetings
Greetings are played to the caller leaving voicemail and can be the following types:
- System greetings
- Custom greetings recorded by the user being called
- Custom text-to-speech greeting specified on the user being called
The language used to play the system greetings is, in priority order, either the primary and secondary prompt language specified in the online voicemail policy assigned to the user, the preferred language specified for the user, or the default tenant language.
The user can record the custom and out of office greetings in their chosen language.
If the user or tenant administrator specifies custom text-to-speech greetings for the user, the language used to generate the speech is the prompt language specified together with the text-to-speech greetings.
The custom text-to-speech greetings are only used if there are no custom greetings recorded for the user.
Transcription
If you enable transcription for the user being called with an online voicemail policy, Cloud Voicemail tries to transcribe the voicemail left by the caller. Cloud Voicemail uses speech detection to understand the language used in the message and, if possible, transcribes the content using the detected language.
Transcription translation
If you enable transcription translation for the user being called with an online voicemail policy, Cloud Voicemail will translate the transcribed voicemail. Cloud Voicemail translates from the language detected during speech detection into, in priority order, either the preferred language specified for the user or the default tenant language.
Voicemail message template
Cloud Voicemail generates the voicemail message using a language template based on, in priority order, either the preferred language specified for the user or the default tenant language.
Setting the preferred language for a user
You can set the preferred language for a user using PowerShell either in Microsoft Entra ID or in the on-premises Active Directory. For more information, see How to set language and region settings for Microsoft 365 or Office 365.
Users can change their own preferred language through their settings after they sign in. For more information, see Change your display language and time zone in Microsoft 365 for Business
Change the system language for everyone in your organization
Sign in with your global administrator account at https://portal.office.com/adminportal/home.
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, choose Settings > Org settings > Organization profile.
Choose Organization information.
Select a language from the Preferred language list for everyone in your organization.
Choose Save.
The languages that are available to you are determined by the location of your organization. For example, if your organization is located in the United States, you can set the default language to English or Spanish. If your organization is located in Canada, you can choose between English and French.
Supported languages in Cloud Voicemail
For a list of supported languages in Cloud Voicemail for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business, see Cloud Voicemail supported languages.
Custom greeting recorded by a user
Users can record their own custom and out of office custom greeting. For more user documentation, see Teams desktop client settings and Check Skype for Business voicemail and options.
Custom text-to-speech greeting specified for a user
The tenant administrator can specify the custom text-to-speech greeting and prompt language for a user by using the Voicemail tab on the User details page in Teams admin center or by using the Set-CsOnlineVoicemailUserSettings cmdlet.
Custom text-to-speech greeting specified by a user
Your users can specify their own custom text-to-speech greetings and the language used for the greetings. For Microsoft Teams, users can change their voicemail greeting from the Teams desktop client settings. For Skype for Business, go to https://mysettings.lync.com/voicemail and choose a new language under Prompt Language.
Related articles
Manage Cloud Voicemail policies for your users
Manage Cloud Voicemail settings for users
Teams languages for voicemail greetings and messages
Set-CsOnlineVoicemailUserSettings