- Microsoft Teams Together mode is officially retired
- Launched in 2020 during the pandemic, it aimed to offer the feeling of “being in the room” with others.
- But Microsoft says other features can now do the job better
Microsoft has confirmed that it will end Together mode in Teams, ending one of its most ambitious video conferencing tools.
Launched in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Together Mode allowed Microsoft Teams users to turn their calls into a virtual keynote, conference room, or meeting room, aiming to “make them feel like they’re sitting in the same room with everyone else,” giving them the opportunity to better connect with their friends or coworkers at a time when lockdowns were in full effect.
But now that many offices have reopened and in-person meetings are becoming more common, Microsoft says it has chosen to end the tool to work on other improvements.
Goodbye Together Mode
“We’re always working to make meetings easier to join, simpler to manage, and better for everyone, regardless of device or network conditions,” wrote Katarina Tranker, product manager for the Microsoft Teams team in a company blog post announcing the change.
“As part of that ongoing effort, we are retiring Together mode in Microsoft Teams.”
Tranker noted that the “core need” that Together mode was designed to address can now be fully met with the modern Gallery view in Teams, which can display up to 49 participants at once.
The changes will “simplify the meeting experience” and “reduce behind-the-scenes complexity,” he added, while allowing Microsoft to focus its “engineering investments” on improvements that will benefit every Teams meeting, “such as video quality, stability and performance.”
The blog post also added that Teams has added a variety of new meeting layout options over the years, leading to potential choice overload for users and a potentially fragmented experience across desktop, web, mobile, and Teams Rooms.
Removing Together mode in favor of a single Gallery view is expected to make it easier for users to quickly access the meeting they need and reduce complexity across the board.
Users will still be able to use specialized backgrounds, and companies will be able to post branded themes or images for their meetings or town halls.
The news is the latest update to Microsoft Teams as the company looks to ensure its online collaboration tool remains relevant to users.
Among its most recent updates is a new feature that will automatically update a user’s work location when connected to an office Wi-Fi network, which hopefully means less confusion about where workers are located, but could be bad news for those of us looking for a quiet day at the office tucked away in the corner.
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