Microsoft announces auditorium mode and filters for Teams

Microsoft will bring Together mode to Teams in August, which uses artificial intelligence to place participants in one virtual space, such as a cafe or auditorium. As a result, users should get more of the feeling of being together.

The company states that people who participate in video calls become fatigued faster than if the call had taken place physically. Because with Together people get the idea faster that they are actually in one room, this should prevent fatigue. The mode works by placing all participants in a shared background. As a result, according to Microsoft, people can more quickly pick up non-verbal cues that are important for human communication. Microsoft will start with an auditorium, which should be available to everyone in August. More views will come later, like cafe.

At the same time, Microsoft says Together will not be suitable for every meeting. That is why the company also wants to improve the traditional way of video calls, where each participant has their own background. For example, the tech giant is working on dynamic view, in which artificial intelligence is used to continuously adjust the relationships between the interlocutors and shared content. For example, Teams can decide during a meeting that one conversation partner should be shown more prominently if they talk more often. Users also get more options to better determine these ratios themselves.

This year, Microsoft is also bringing additional, smaller features to Teams, such as filters that allow a user to adjust the lighting of his or her camera image. Users must also be able to send emojis, chat bubbles must appear better on the screen and live subtitles must soon show who is saying what. Microsoft is also announcing that Teams meetings will support up to 1,000 participants. This maximum becomes twenty thousand if there is only one presenter.