Microsoft Teams Users Can Now Use Avatars For Imersive Meetings And Spaces

JAKARTA - Teams video conferencing apps are getting new features again, including avatar support and immersive space.

Introduced through the Microsoft Build 2023 event recently, both features are still under public preview testing for a while. However, any Microsoft Teams Enterprise or Business subscriber will be able to use avatars in Microsoft Teams.

The Teams avatar feature will be useful whenever the camera is turned off. Users can create virtual representations of themselves and choose to display them on video feed on the screen join to the meeting.

Users can also use avatar reactions, update their background, and change the camera position. Unfortunately, it doesn't determine whether the avatar will become 3D or not.

In addition to avatars, the company also presents an immersive space supported by Microsoft Mesh for Microsoft Teams. Imersive space is a way for users to meet in virtual spaces and enjoy direct interactions such as walking to groups and waving indoors.

Imersive space can be used both in Personal Computer (PC) and in the Virtual Reality (VR) headset, and relies on the use of avatars and video feeds. The feature will be available to Microsoft Teams starting this week.

Microsoft Mesh itself is known to be a platform to allow developers to build immersive virtual experiences specifically for workspace, both via PC and virtual reality.

The company first announced Microsoft Mesh at the end of 2021 when several companies invested in the metaverse. But there is no further information about the concept, then in 2022 news of a planned launch will emerge.

However, it was again postponed due to increased interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the industry. Even so, his revival at Microsoft Build 2023 is a sign that the tech giant has not given up on this technology. This was quoted from XDA Developers and Digital Trends, Thursday, May 25.