Windows 10: Microsoft finally lets you make eye contact on video calls with this new preview
Microsoft has rolled out a new AI-powered feature of its Arm-based Surface Pro X that corrects the gaze of the person on a video call to make it appear they're looking directly at the other participant.
The trick addresses a quirk of video calls caused by people looking at each others' face on the screen rather than directly at the camera.
More Microsoft
Apple had planned a similar feature for iOS 13 called FaceTime Attention Correction, but the feature was deferred and now turned up again in the iOS 14 preview and is just called Eye Contact.
SEE: Windows 10 Start menu hacks (TechRepublic Premium)
Microsoft's Eye Contact relies on artificial intelligence capabilities of the Surface Pro X's Qualcomm-made Microsoft SQ1 Arm-based processor.
The feature is limited to the Surface X Pro and can only be accessed on the latest Windows 10 Insider Dev Channel preview, build 20175, which Microsoft released on Wednesday.
Eye Contact can be toggled on from within the Surface app on the Surface Pro X.
Separately, some Windows Insiders with AMD processors have run into troubles installing this preview build.
"After an investigation, we have fixed an issue that was preventing many PCs, including PCs with AMD processors, from being offered this build," said Brandon LeBlanc, a senior program manager on Microsoft's Windows Insider Program.
According to Microsoft, a "service side issue" prevented some AMD and Intel devices from detecting this new build. It's provided manual steps for getting the update on its Answers forum.
Microsoft has also started rolling out new icons for its Sticky Notes and the Snip & Sketch apps that are designed to look good on the new partially transparent tiles in the Start menu. The new icons are available via updates from the Microsoft Store.
Finally, Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser is offering improved, quick access to tabs for pinned sites via the Taskbar. After clicking a pinned site on the Taskbar, Windows shows all open tabs for sites across any Edge windows.
SEE: Microsoft is working on an Azure-powered Cloud PC service
The feature is rolling out to some Insiders today and the Microsoft Edge Insider Build 85.0.561.0 or higher from the Canary or Dev Channel.
Another new multitasking feature for Edge is that the Alt + Tab shortcut now not only shows open apps, but also opened browser tabs to choose from.
Users can limit how many tabs are shown with Alt + Tab in Settings > System > Multitasking so that it only shows the last three or five tabs instead of all of them.