Skype gets Together Mode from Teams to create virtual get-togethers
Microsoft Teams’ Together Mode feature has arrived in Skype, enabling more people to see themselves as part of a group using the power of AI. With Together Mode, participants in a video call are presented next to each other rather than isolated in their own windows, providing a more compact view of everyone in a somewhat more natural arrangement.
Together Mode, a feature previously limited to Microsoft Teams, is exactly what it sounds like: an AI-powered tool that brings group call participants together in a single screen. The mode presents a shared background, such as a stadium, and uses AI to place each participant in their own seat, making it appear they’re sitting next to each other.
Microsoft Announces Major Skype Update with Together Mode Dec 18, 2020 19:20 GMT
The large grid view mode in Skype
Microsoft has just released a new Skype version, and this time the company has introduced several major new features, including the popular Together Mode.
In other words, users who installed Skype 8.67 can see them and the other participants in a virtual space, all with the purpose of making the experience overall feel more natural.
Together Mode is already available in Microsoft Teams in Skype requires at least 5 users to be part of the same conversation.
In addition, Microsoft also announced a Large Grid Mode in this latest Skype update, thus making it possible for users in large meetings to see everybody at the same time.
Skype now has Microsoft Teams’ fun Together Mode
Share this story
Skype’s new Together Mode option featuring Verge staff.
Microsoft is bringing one of its best Teams video calling features over to Skype this week. Together Mode, which uses AI to segment your face and shoulders and place you together with other people in a virtual space, is now available in Skype. You’ll need at least five people all with webcams to enable the feature, and it will place everyone into a virtual environment as if they’re sitting next to each other.
You don’t even need the Skype app to take advantage of Together Mode, as it works through the web version of Skype without the need for an account. Skype users can create a Meet Now meeting and share the link with anyone to join.
Together Mode Comes to Skype
Skype 8.67 is now available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and the web, and it includes one of Teams’ best features: Together Mode.
“The latest Skype is out and we have prepared cool new features in this release like Together Mode and Large Grid Mode during a Skype video call so you can enjoy being in touch with your friends and families during the holidays,” the Skype team reveals in a Microsoft Community post.
Here’s what’s new on desktop and web:
Together Mode. As it does Microsoft Teams, Together Mode rearranges the display of group video calls to make it look like the participants are together in a virtual environment like a classroom.
Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft has added the Together Mode option that debuted in Teams to Skype. In the latest Skype version (Skype 8.67), Together Mode is one of a handful of new features available to various versions of Skype.
Together Mode is a viewing option that makes it appear as if all meeting participants are located in the same physically shared space instead of via a traditional grid view.
Microsoft officials have said they believe Together Mode will help alleviate virtual-meeting fatigue and make meetings feel more real. Initially, Microsoft launched Together Mode with an auditorium view but it since has added other options like coffee shops. Here are Microsoft s instructions on switching viewing modes in Skype.