Teams is on track to feature mixed reality meetings as Microsoft builds out its new Mesh platform.
Mesh, which has been unveiled at Ignite, is a collaboration platform that allows users to share virtual experiences.
A demonstration of Mesh during the opening keynote showed users manipulating 3D objects as avatars or holographic versions of themselves - and also included an interview with film director James Cameron via hologram (pictured, above).
You can view a replay of Satya Nadella’s introduction of Mesh, and the demonstrate, in the video below (the clip jumps to the launch of Mesh).
“This has been the dream for mixed reality; the idea from the very beginning,” said Microsoft Technical Fellow, Alex Kipman, when announcing Mesh.
“You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together”
Crucially, Microsoft has quietly announced that Mesh’s ground-breaking capabilities are set to come to Teams.
A blog post by Nishant Thacker, Senior Technical Product Manager at Microsoft, contains a diagram displaying Mesh-enabled apps.
The Mesh demonstration from the keynote was made using Microsoft’s Altspace platform and there is already an app designed for Microsoft’s HoloLens headset.
But Microsoft also revealed that Teams integration is “coming later”.
An integration with Teams would seem like a logical next step for Mesh, and vice versa, given both platforms’ emphasis on collaboration.
