Microsoft to retire ‘Together Mode,’ its virtual meeting space for Teams
Microsoft plans to retire “Together Mode” in Teams next month and is encouraging users to access its Gallery view for video calls instead. The company launched Together Mode in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, as Teams usage rocketed and businesses sought ways to connect staff when physical offices closed due to social distancing policies. Together Mode was positioned as a “shared virtual space” to enhance the feeling of connection while on a video call, with participants’ video feed cropped and placed in virtual scenes such as a conference room, coffee shop, or amphitheater. Microsoft claimed that Together Mode users were less likely to experience video meeting fatigue — a common complaint among remote workers as tools such as Teams and Zoom became the norm for office collaboration. The feature could be seen as part of a wider push for more engaging and immersive meeting experiences, a move that extended to Microsoft’s metaverse for work concept, with its Mesh 3D meeting p