The Microsoft Teams platform is now accessible via the HoloLens 2 following a wave of significant updates to the virtual reality headset.
In the most recent update, Microsoft added Teams and OneDrive to existing Azure and Power Platform integrations.
Microsoft has stated that it aims to deliver the same collaboration tools that deskbound workers can access and give to frontline workers.
Alysa Taylor, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Azure and Industry, commented: “We’re truly delivering Windows in mixed reality.
“Microsoft sees several different metaverse categories. There is the familiar consumer metaverse, where we shop and play with friends and family.
“And there are the commercial and industrial metaverses where we collaborate with colleagues and get work done.
“The industrial metaverse is a fundamentally new way for humans and AI to work together to design, build, operate and optimise their physical systems.
“With Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365 and mixed reality offerings that bridge the digital and physical, customers can build digital twins of a factory floor or warehouse and simulate manufacturing or supply chain processes in the cloud.
“That allows them to refine those processes in the industrial metaverse — whether to boost operational efficiency or shrink their environmental footprint — before committing them to physical form.”
Microsoft says HoloLens 2 users can “summon” an array of holographic windows with a Teams call or chat, a Power BI dashboard, a Word document, a PDF or video, their OneDrive folder, or their calendar and operate in an immersive, 3D experience.
The Azure cloud services mean that frontline workers can integrate digital information into their physical world through that holographic experience.
The features are designed to help users learn industrial processes faster or support their colleagues by providing advice using the VR headset.
Using Microsoft Teams, frontline workers can use the headset to show their remote colleagues what they see in real-time.
Microsoft has described this as the “see what I see” scenario, which can be used anywhere in the world on any device.
The company states that users can annotate in the 3D space and augment what the frontline worker sees.
Microsoft launched the HoloLens 2 in 2019, and because it doesn’t entirely obscure the user’s field of vision, it provides a genuine mixed-reality experience with a combination of real-world optical and superimposed visuals.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Meta was partnering with Microsoft and Zoom to bring the communication platforms to its VR workspaces.
The announcement was made during Connect 2022 as the social media giant announced the Meta Quest Pro — a VR headset designed with collaboration and productivity in mind.
During the Meta Quest keynote, Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman and CEO, said: “Microsoft Teams is the most ubiquitous advanced platform for work today, and it’s becoming essential to how hundreds of millions of people meet, call, chat, collaborate and do business.
“We are clearly going through a once-in-a-lifetime change in how we work; every organisation today is looking for new ways to reconnect and re-energise their workforce at home, in the office and everywhere in between.” Nadella confirmed:
“That’s why we are bringing Microsoft Teams immersive meeting experience to Meta Quest in order to give people new ways to connect.”
Users will also have access to Microsoft’s 365 suite to directly interact with apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook from the Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2.
