Microsoft’s Mesh is a collaborative platform that allows anyone to have shared virtual experiences on a variety of devices. it is not wrong to call the technology the future of Microsoft’s Teams meeting. The technology is the latest demonstration of Microsoft’s vision for the future of VR and AR — or as Microsoft calls it, mixed reality.
“This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning. You can 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.”
In 2017, Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR social network, and thus for its Mesh, it uses the virtual avatars of people taken from the database of the social network. Mesh will eventually support what Microsoft calls “holoportation,” allowing people to appear as themselves in a virtual space.
When Microsoft originally demonstrated HoloLens using a collaborative Skype call, It felt like the promise of augmented reality, and Microsoft Mesh seems like the natural next step. As a demonstration, you can, reshape the animals, pass them back, or just place them down in front of you.
“You can completely imagine a Mesh-enabled Microsoft Teams, where the key thing there is, think about colleagues from across the globe collaborating as if you and I are in the same physical location. Mesh enables Teams to allow organizations to essentially do mixed reality gatherings with everyone in the same room and so you should think about that in a Mesh-enabled Teams-type of an environment.”
Microsoft’s Mesh will be made available on a variety of devices, including the HoloLens 2, most virtual reality headsets, tablets, smartphones, and PCs. A preview of the Microsoft Mesh app for HoloLens 2 will be available today, alongside a preview version of AltspaceVR that is Mesh enabled.
According to sources, Teams and Dynamics 365 will also be integrated with Mesh in the coming future, which might help bring the unique meeting experience I had into a reality for more people.
“Think about what Xbox Live did for gaming — we went from single player to multiplayer, creating communities that helped people connect and achieve together. Now just imagine if the same thing happened with mixed reality,” stated the company’s CEO.
