Microsoft made several announcements related to AI at its Build developer conference this week, including updates on its vision of a workplace “metaverse.” The company released avatars for Teams and private previews of its Mesh mixed-reality tools. Microsoft introduced its Mesh concept in 2021, which includes a development platform to build mixed-reality apps, a virtual collaboration app, and avatars for Teams. Avatars within Teams are now generally available to Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise customers via the Teams desktop client for macOS and Windows. “Avatars for Teams offers an alternative to the current binary option of video or no video in Teams meetings,” said Lori Craw, director of marketing for Modern Work at Microsoft in a blog post. “Customizable avatars and reactions give you a much-needed camera break while showing colleagues that you are present — encouraging engagement, collaboration, and fun.”
Christopher Trueman, principal analyst at Gartner covering digital workplace applications, said, “Despite their recent layoffs, [Tuesday’s] announcements about Microsoft Mesh and avatars for Teams show that Microsoft is still working to bring more engaging and immersive experiences to Microsoft 365 customers.” However, Trueman also noted that users may be underwhelmed by the new feature at launch. “This isn’t an issue with the avatars themselves,” he said, which are of “good quality and offer plenty of customization options.” The issue is “how they are implemented and the impact this has on the experience of using them in Microsoft Teams,” he said. Unlike avatars that track motion via a user’s webcam, such as those available in rival video platforms including Zoom, Teams avatar movements are generated from pre-built animations. This limits avatar expressions to what Microsoft’s designers have envisioned, said Trueman. Another issue is that some animations can’t be accessed when other Teams features are in use, making for a disjointed experience that risks distracting users more than it engages.
2023-06-01 18:30:02
Link from www.computerworld.com