Microsoft has announced the retirement of Together Mode, a feature launched during the pandemic that allowed meeting participants to appear as if they were sitting together in a virtual conference room. The feature, which used artificial intelligence to cut out users' heads and shoulders and place them in a shared digital space, was intended to foster a sense of togetherness in remote meetings. However, as the world has moved toward hybrid work models and video fatigue has set in, Microsoft is pivoting away from what it now considers a gimmick in favor of a more streamlined and performance-oriented Teams experience.
Together Mode was introduced in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 crisis when millions of people were working from home. It was designed to reduce the visual chaos of a traditional grid view by simulating a shared physical environment, such as a lecture hall, auditorium, or even a coffee shop. Users could even tap coworkers on the shoulder or give virtual high fives, adding an element of playful interaction. Despite its creative appeal, the feature never became a staple of daily use for most Teams customers. Many users found it distracting or resource-intensive, and the novelty quickly wore off as remote work became routine.
According to Microsoft, the decision to retire Together Mode is part of a broader strategy to reduce fragmentation across platforms and simplify the Teams interface. The company has long faced criticism that Teams is overly complex, with too many buttons, menus, and settings scattered across different platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and the web. By removing Together Mode, Microsoft hopes to offer a more consistent user experience that requires fewer clicks and less confusion. The company also stated that stepping away from such features will allow its engineering teams to concentrate on improving video quality, stability, and overall performance.
The retirement will happen gradually. As the rollout progresses, the Together Mode toggle will disappear from the view menu during meetings. Additionally, Together-specific elements such as scenes, seat assignments, and the virtual high-five gesture will be removed entirely. Users who had customized their virtual seats or downloaded special scenes will lose those settings. However, Microsoft has assured that other background options, including standard background blur, custom images, and video filters, will remain available. The company recommends that users who enjoyed Together Mode explore these alternatives to maintain a degree of personalization.
Historical Context and the Rise of Virtual Backgrounds
Together Mode was part of a wave of virtual background innovations that emerged during the pandemic. Zoom popularized the use of background images and filters, and Microsoft answered with its own AI-driven take. However, Microsoft's approach was more immersive, using segmentation to remove the background entirely and place users in a shared 3D space. The feature required significant computational power, often leading to higher CPU usage and, in some cases, degraded performance on older hardware. Support for Together Mode was limited to certain device specifications, which further narrowed its adoption.
In the years since, Microsoft has made several adjustments to Together Mode, adding new scenes like a boardroom, a blank background, and even a cozy fireplace setting. Yet the company never fully integrated it into the core meeting experience. Users had to manually toggle it on, and the effect was lost if participants had poor lighting or bandwidth issues. As remote meetings became more frequent and professional, the feature's playful nature sometimes clashed with the formal tone of business conversations. A 2022 survey by Microsoft’s own research group indicated that while users appreciated the novelty, less than 10% of meetings used Together Mode regularly.
Impact on Users and the Future of Teams
For power users who loved Together Mode, its retirement may be disappointing. Some educators and event organizers used it to create engaging virtual classrooms or town halls. However, the vast majority of users are unlikely to notice the change. The removal simplifies the video call interface, reducing the number of options in the view menu and potentially improving loading times. It also aligns Microsoft Teams more closely with competing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, which have not attempted comparable virtual staging features.
Microsoft’s focus on video quality and performance is timely. With more organizations adopting permanent hybrid work policies, the reliability of video conferencing tools has become a critical business priority. Recent updates to Teams have included improved noise suppression, better low-light handling, and higher resolution streaming. By reallocating resources from niche features like Together Mode, Microsoft can accelerate these core improvements. The company has also been investing in AI-powered enhancements, such as real-time translation, meeting recap, and intelligent camera framing, which are likely to have a broader impact on user productivity.
The retirement also reflects a broader industry trend of pruning features that were hastily added during the pandemic. Many software companies are now focusing on sustainability and performance over novelty. For example, Zoom has simplified its virtual background options, and Google has deprecated several experimental features in its Workspace suite. Microsoft itself has a history of retiring features that fail to gain traction, such as the Cortana assistant in mobile apps and the standalone My People integration. Together Mode joins that list, but its legacy lives on in the way it pushed the boundaries of what video conferencing could look like.
As Microsoft moves forward, the Teams roadmap includes enhanced security, better cross-platform compatibility, and deeper integration with Microsoft 365 apps. The company has also been testing AI-driven meeting modes that automatically adjust layouts based on the number of participants and their activity. These innovations promise to make Teams more adaptive and intelligent without requiring users to manually select scenes or toggle gimmicks. While Together Mode may be gone, the spirit of innovation remains—redirected toward making every meeting more productive and less distracting.
Source: The Verge News