Immersive Spaces in Microsoft Teams will be generally available in January next year, Microsoft has revealed at Ignite.
The virtual reality meetings, powered by Microsoft Mesh, were announced by Microsoft in May to “inject a sense of natural co-presence” during hybrid meetings.
The feature will be available in the Teams ‘view’ menu, letting users transform typical 2D meetings into 3D experiences.
Microsoft Mesh, which lets developers build their own virtual meeting spaces, will also be generally available in January.
Colette Stallbaumer, General Manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work, said in a blog post:
“We’re reimagining the way employees come together with Microsoft Mesh in the place where 100s of millions of people work today – Microsoft Teams.”
Immersive Spaces and Mesh will initially be compatible with PCs and Meta Quest headsets.
Key Features of Immersive Spaces and Mesh
Users will partake in the 3D meetings by using either an avatar they’ve already created for 2D Teams meetings or creating a new one. These avatars can be easily customised and will be based in one of the ready-made 3D environments.
Seats can be assigned in table-based environments, while immersive activities will also be available.
Meetings can also feature spatial order and several separate audio zones for simultaneous conversations in one environment.
With Mesh, individuals and organisations will have the ability to create customised immersive spaces that cater to specific business requirements. These spaces can be used for various purposes, such as employee events, training exercises, guided tours, and internal product showcases.
Customers can now create a fully customisable experience using Unity with either a no-code editor or the Mesh toolkit to personalise an immersive event.
Event organisers will have the option to choose from a variety of pre-made immersive spaces. They can further personalise these spaces by adding images, videos, and screen shares into a shared 3D canvas.
Additionally, videos can be put on a loop to make them fit perfectly into the event. Once these customisations are made, they can be saved as templates for future use by anyone in the organisation.
Users with a Teams Premium licence will be able to customise immersive spaces in Mesh.
Immersive Spaces will only be available in the Windows Teams client at launch, with no launch dates yet revealed for MacOS, Teams mobile or the Teams web application.
Microsoft Mesh was first revealed at Ignite back in 2021 and has been available in preview for some time.
Avatars, meanwhile, have been available since May this year, when Microsoft also announced the imminent arrival of Immersive Spaces.
