Microsoft Corp.’s Teams today announced a range of new features as use continues to surge thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing workplace restrictions.

Leading the list is what Microsoft calls “Together mode,” a new experience in Teams that reimagines how users engage virtually via video. Using artificial intelligence segmentation technology, the feature places participants in a virtual space with a shared background.

In the picture above, participants are placed in a virtual auditorium, but the feature will eventually be able to place participants in virtual meeting rooms or even in a coffee shop. The idea behind the Together mode is to address feedback from users that they feel less connected since moving to remote work. The idea is to make online meetings more engaging while allowing participants to focus on other people’s faces and body language that are important for human interaction.

“It’s great for meetings in which multiple people will speak, such as brainstorms or roundtable discussions, because it makes it easier for participants to understand who is talking,” explained Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Microsoft 365.

Alongside Together mode, Microsoft also announced dynamic view, which hit said is a more fluid, flexible and intelligent way to interact with people and content in a meeting. Using AI, the feature optimizes shared content and video participants on the fly, including the ability to show shared content and specific participants side-by-side.

Teams is also receiving new in-meeting features including chat bubbles, reflections and live reactions that will allow participants to share their sentiments without interrupting the meeting flow. With chat bubbles, chats sent during a meeting will surface on all screens of meeting participants with the aim of making chat more central to the conversation.

Cortana is making its debut on Teams as a voice assistant that will leverage both AI and the Microsoft Graph to find the right meetings, files and people when asked by a user. Cortana’s debut in Teams comes as no great surprise, since Microsoft announced in February that it was retooling the service for enterprise use.

Other features announced include video filters designed to help facilitate and aid in nonverbal communications, speaker attribution for live captions and transcripts, and a reflective messaging extension that allows chat leaders to check how participants are feeling.

Some of the new features, such as Together mode with the auditorium view, are available now, with other new features being rolled out in the coming weeks or months.

Image: Microsoft