Microsoft is launching immersive 3D meetings within Microsoft Teams today. The company’s mixed reality platform, Microsoft Mesh, is now in preview and integrated into Teams to allow people to gather in virtual spaces with or without VR headsets.
I was able to try out Mesh within Microsoft Teams late last year, and it looks a lot like the enterprise version of AltspaceVR, the social VR platform that Microsoft acquired in 2017 and shut down a year ago. 3D mesh meetings in Teams are best done with a VR headset, and Microsoft currently only supports Meta’s Quest devices.
You can participate in virtual 3D meetings, and impressive spatial audio capabilities mimic the ability to have private conversations in the virtual space, separated from other colleagues. The 3D environment is also customizable, allowing you to play games like beanbag toss and ask icebreaker questions to remote colleagues when you meet them for the first time.
All standard mesh features, including Teams immersive spaces, are available with Microsoft Teams Business plans. If you want to deploy custom immersive spaces, you’ll need a Teams Premium license.
I first used Microsoft Mesh about three years ago and said it felt like “the virtual future of Microsoft Teams meetings.” Microsoft Mesh still exists as a platform where developers can leverage their VR/AR experiences, but its integration into Teams feels like a natural step.
Questions still remain regarding the adoption of this type of virtual meetings in business. According to Microsoft, Accenture, BP, Takeda, and Mercy Ships are all currently using Mesh, just a few of the companies that use Teams every day. While the integration into Teams is helpful, it feels like Mesh is already on its way to becoming just a feature of Teams rather than its own platform.