Microsoft will soon roll out its 3D avatars functionality, set to arrive for Teams and Zoom meetings in May.
Mesh avatars has been in private preview since October of last year, inspired by Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Annual Report showing that 50 percent of Gen Z and millennials will be doing their work in the metaverse in the next two years.
Added to the Microsoft product roadmap and expected in general availability in May for desktop and Mac, Microsoft intends the customisable avatars to help participants lighten meetings, giving them a break from the camera.
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Muhammad Kapasi, General Engineering Manager for Mesh, spoke about the ability of participants to customising avatars and stated:
“Representation matters — which is why we have taken Mesh avatar customisation options very seriously. We want to make avatars as unique as you are, so we are enabling features to celebrate diversity and inclusivity.”
Creating a mesh avatar is relatively straightforward.
Two Ways to Make Mesh Avatars in Microsoft Teams:
Users must add the app from their Teams home screen or access the builder from a Teams meeting.
Teams home screen: users select the three dots above the store icon in the left sidebar to launch the search bar; they then type “mesh avatar” in the search bar and choose the appropriate app.
Teams meeting access: Participants must select the three dots to the left of the camera icon in the top bar. Then they click “Effects and Avatars” and “Avatar” in the right column. Finally, users should choose “Open Avatar App” above “Your Avatar”.
Avery Salumbides, Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft described the Mesh avatar toggle feature, designed to create reactions; she said: “We want participants to be able to express themselves via their Mesh avatars, so we created avatar reactions, a mood toggle, and options to adjust the camera angle.
“Users can join your meeting with a smile on their face and show your enthusiasm with just the right reaction — whether your coworker makes a point you agree with, says something surprising, or shares a funny story from the weekend.”
Mesh Avatars and the Current Reality of the Metaverse
The concept of 3D avatars is so workers can collaborate in a virtual reality workspace where they cannot be in the same location, therefore via a Teams or Zoom meeting.
The original launch for Mesh avatars for 2021 was put back to 2022 and has since delayed again because of the AI boom. The delay could be about integrating AI-powered functionality with 3D avatars. This could, for example, take the form of AI using the camera to follow room movements to mimic the user, embellishing the avatar with more of an animated sense of realism.
The idea of avatars is linked with the long-term project of the metaverse, which is taking more time as ChatGPT and all things AI are stealing all the tech thunder across the internet. Zuckerberg’s plans to take us all into the internet with Web3 have stalled lately. Still, in a recent redundancy announcement to Meta and Facebook staff he told them: “Our leading work building the metaverse and shaping the next generation of computing platforms also remains central to defining the future of social connection.”
Much talk about the decline of the metaverse forgets that it would always be a 5-10-year endeavour, so watch this virtual space.
