Microsoft will harness the mixed-reality capabilities of its Mesh solution and integrate it into Teams as it takes further steps into the metaverse workspace.
Mesh for Microsoft Teams will be rolled out in 2022 in a bid to make hybrid meetings more personal, engaging and fun.
Microsoft Mesh, unveiled in March 2021, allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences. Combined with Teams it will build on immersive features already in Teams such as Together mode and Presenter mode.
Jeff Teper, a Microsoft corporate vice president whose responsibilities include the Microsoft 365 productivity tools Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, said the tools were all ways “to signal we’re in the same virtual space, we’re one team, we’re one group, and help take the formality down a peg and the engagement up a peg.
“We’ve seen that those tools have accomplished both goals of helping a team be more effective and also helping individuals be more engaged.”
Users will be able to access Mesh for Teams from standard smartphones and laptops as well as mixed-reality headsets.
Microsoft also describes it as a gateway to the metaverse. The company hopes to ease Teams users into this digital world suggesting that most users of Mesh for Teams will start by joining a standard Teams meeting as a customised avatar of themselves.
Organisations can also build immersive spaces – metaverses – within Teams. Mesh for Teams users can take their avatars into these spaces to mix and collaborate more naturally with colleagues.
Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman, said: “As a company whose focus is on productivity, on knowledge workers, [Mesh for Teams is] something that customers are really asking us for, and it’s coupled with the vision of mixed reality that we’ve been working on for 12 years. It’s all coming together.”
When Mesh for Teams begins to roll out in preview in the first half of 2022, users will have a variety of options to choose from to create and join a Teams meeting as a unique, personalised avatar. Other attendees might also be represented by avatars, show themselves on video or use a static picture or bubble with initials.
Katie Kelly, a principal project manager at Microsoft working on Mesh for Teams, said: “To start, we will take audio cues so as you talk your face will animate. You’ll also have animations that bring additional expressivity to the avatars. Your hands will move. There will be a feeling of presence even though it’s as simple as being able to take your audio and manifest that as facial expressions. That’s the first release. The ambition is to closely follow that with Microsoft’s plethora of AI technologies so that we can use the camera to insinuate where your mouth is and mimic your head and facial movements.”
You can watch a video of Satya Nadella, Microsoft chairman and CEO, announcing Mesh for Microsoft Teams at Ignite 2021 below.
All images courtesy of Microsoft