Integrating Mesh, Microsoft Teams enables 3D VR meetings

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See you in January 2024

(XR Navigation Network November 16, 2023) Ignitete at annual developer conference MicrosoftAnnouncing the official version of Microsoft Mesh in 2023 and official support for immersive spaces in Teams will see you in January 2024.

A range of features, including 3D environments and interactive games, will include support for Teams immersive spaces, allowing event organizers to tailor immersive experiences to their specific needs via the Mesh Editor. Of course, customization features are currently only available to Teams Premium users.

Nearly three years since Microsoft's mixed reality platform debuted Mesh, it's now making immersive 3D team meetings a reality. In January 2024, Microsoft Mesh will be officially integrated into Teams and allow colleagues scattered around the world to meet in virtual spaces through various devices.

This is a major change from Microsoft's original vision for Mesh. Microsoft originally wanted developers to use Mesh to create a range of immersive content, but now Mesh has begun to gravitate towards the enterprise market as an example of conference collaboration.

Although Microsoft Mesh will remain a standalone platform, it will be integrated directly into Teams. Nicole Herskowitz, vice president of marketing for Microsoft Teams, admitted in an interview: "The transformation of Mesh is significant. We have achieved a huge change, brought it to people's daily work technology, and Truly SaaS for SaaS so everyone can use it where they work.”

Over the past few months, Mesh has transformed into a 3D meeting and event platform for Teams, and now it feels more likeAltspaceVR的企业版。当然，微软在这一领域面临着来自初创公司的大量竞争和Meta的挑战。但微软的优势在于，每月有超过3.2亿Teams活跃用户可以推销Mesh。

During the epidemic, people’s expectations for immersive conferences reached their peak. At that time, it was generally believed that Microsoft and Meta were about to become fierce competitors. However, unexpectedly, Microsoft promised to bring Teams, Office, Windows and evenXboxExperience brought to Meta’s VR headsets.

You can use Meta Quest Experience Mesh in Teams. You can enter a virtual space in a custom meeting room and even compose music and roast marshmallows. . . These are among the activities Microsoft has included for 3D World in Teams.

Of course, you don't even need a VR headset to experience Teams, but it will obviously become more immersive with one. Nicole Herskovitz said: “We’ve done a lot of work to ensure hybrid meetings are more inclusive and productive, but we want to go a step further and allow employees to feel connected wherever they work, knowing that they’re working together It’s not always possible to be together in a physical space.”

The immersive experience of Teams will definitely make you feel like you are actually joining the meeting and becoming a part of it. But of course, the person you're talking to right now is an Avatar whose lower body is not floating. It takes a few minutes to get used to, but if you've used AltspaceVR, VRChat, or Meta Horizon Workrooms, you shouldn't be surprised.

Microsoft uses both spatial audio and audio zones so multiple users can have conversations in the same space at the same time. This helps alleviate frequent situations in Teams and awkward unexpected conversations in Zoom or other conferencing software.

Nicole Herskovitz said: "We were so used to working in 2D. We were almost talking, but we thought there could be a 3D world that allowed us to talk to each other, like we were sitting together and giving each other high fives and having a kind of A natural sense of connection. Mesh is designed to create an experience of being in a room with others.”

扬西·史密斯，微软混合现实商业和消费者业务总经理（Yancey Smith）补充道:“其实我们认为MR是未来的平台。如今，Hololens主要面向一线员工。至于Teams和Mesh，我们真正针对的是正在参加会议的信息工作者，并试图给他们一种超越网格的体验。”

Microsoft will continue to optimize the immersive experience of Teams. With Microsoft adding artificial intelligence to all of its products, including mixed reality, you can summon any element you can imagine in your future 3D meetings. It's just a matter of time. Yancey Smith mentioned the potential of Copilot in Teams to generate whiteboards during 3D meetings and even create sticky notes and objects that can be used in immersive spaces. It is expected that Microsoft will share more content on the application of generative artificial intelligence to immersive spaces in the future.

But before that happens, Microsoft needs to convince the world that immersive meetings are the way forward.