Microsoft is discontinuing Teams Together and I’m going to miss the odd feature
“Together again, again.” Kermit’s line Most wanted dolls After Microsoft’s recent Teams announcement, it lands differently.
Teams Together mode will be discontinued next month. Meeting attendees will instead have to rely on a scalable gallery view or an in-person meeting. After the June 30 change, Teams users will still be able to be together, just not in together mode.
Microsoft introduced the mode together In 2020, when remote work makes meetings feel flat and disconnected. Placing everyone in a shared virtual space was meant to make meetings feel more natural and help people connect.
Six years later, the picture is different. Many companies have pushed people back into offices. Teams also added new features, such as an expanded gallery view that makes Together mode somewhat redundant.
Microsoft explained in a blog post gets rid of Together mode to simplify the meeting experience and allow engineers to focus on improvements that help all types of Teams meetings.
Custom scenes and seat assignments will disappear with Together mode. Organizations will have to rely on branded backgrounds instead.
Microsoft notes that having too many options for meetings can increase cognitive load for users and fragment the experience across devices.
According to Microsoft, a simplified meeting interface should reduce clicks, make meetings more comfortable and lead to faster innovation.
If you want to emulate parts of the Together mode, Microsoft suggests mounting speakers, lighting presenters, and using multiple displays.
I understand why the together mode is gone. If I had to choose between poor performance, difficult meetings, and colleagues sitting together in a virtual audience, I would choose the former. But I will miss the Together mode. It emerged at a time when social interaction was strained and did its best to bridge the gap.
Microsoft even had some fun with the Together mode by releasing it holiday themes For the feature in 2020. We can still wear it ugly sweaters this year. We won’t just be sitting in the same virtual room.
