Microsoft, leading computer software and applications developer, has announced that it will be launching Mesh, a metaverse-inspired feature, for its Teams app.
This is coming barely a week after Facebook changed its company name to Meta, sealing its vision of becoming a metaverse-dedicated company.
Mesh will enable users to have a personalized experience and feel more involved in meetings by introducing avatars — which are digital representations of the users — in team calls.
Users will also be able to meet and greet one another without hitches and in real-time.
People with smartphones, laptops, holographic devices, etc., will be able to access Mesh.
According to a statement by Microsoft’s corporate vice president, Jeff Teper, Mesh is a means to “Signal we’re in the same virtual space, we’re one team, we’re one group, and help take the formality down a peg and the engagement up a peg.
We’ve seen that those tools have accomplished both goals of helping a team be more effective and also helping individuals be more engaged.”
This move by Microsoft, even though it has been in the works for a while, seems like a direct response to Facebook’s name change.
Post pandemic, there seems to be increasing value in — and offering of — metaverse-inspired services in the corporate and social worlds.
Despite the recent spotlight on the virtual world and its integration with augmented reality, metaverse proposals existed before now.
An example is Decentraland which is a blockchain project that enables people buy plots of land and establish virtual stands or other useful digital representations.
Another example is a similar project called The Sandbox which features virtual land and assets.
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