Tired of zooming into work via webcam and staring at colleagues’ faces? This mixed-reality application for Microsoft’s Teams collaboration platform is a step toward the metaverse promised land, at least for desk-bound knowledge workers. Strap on a HoloLens 2 headset and pop into a meeting as an avatar that sounds and (sort of) looks like you. Mesh for Teams—part of Microsoft’s broader metaverse platform still under development—also includes pre-built meeting spaces and is accessible from smartphones and laptops as well. A goal, says Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft Collaborative Apps and Platforms, is to make online meetings “more personal, engaging, and fun.” People can go “beyond the current binary choice of video or no video.”
More Must-Reads From TIME
- Succession Was a Race to the Bottom, And Everybody Won
- What Erdoğan’s Victory Means for Turkey—and the World
- Why You Can't Remember That Taylor Swift Concert All Too Well
- How Four Trans Teens Threw the Prom of Their Dreams
- Why Turkey’s Longtime Leader Is an Electoral Powerhouse
- The Ancient Roots of Psychotherapy
- Drought Crisis Spurs U.S.-Mexico Collaboration
- Florence Pugh Might Just Save the Movie Star From Extinction
