Microsoft Teams Together Mode and Immersive Spaces in 2026: Reimagining the Virtual Meeting Experience

Video fatigue is real. After years of staring at a grid of floating heads against mismatched home office backgrounds, the research is clear: traditional video call formats increase cognitive load and reduce the sense of genuine human connection. Microsoft recognized this problem early and has been building toward something fundamentally different. In 2026, Teams Together Mode and Immersive Spaces have matured into polished, practical tools that make remote meetings feel qualitatively different from the standard gallery view experience.

This guide covers what these features actually do, when to use each one, and the practical steps to make the most of them in everyday meetings.

What Is Together Mode?

Together Mode uses AI segmentation to cut out each participant's image from their background and place everyone in a shared virtual environment — a conference room, an auditorium, a cafe, a classroom, or a custom branded space. Instead of isolated video tiles, everyone appears to be sitting together in the same room.

The psychology behind this is deliberate. When people appear spatially co-located, even in a virtual environment, the brain processes the meeting as more social. Eye contact cues, laughter reactions, and body language all register more naturally than they do in the standard grid view.

How to Enable Together Mode

Join or start a Teams meeting with at least 2 participants

Click the three-dot More menu in the meeting toolbar

Select Together mode

Choose a scene from the scene picker (each organizer can also set a default scene for all attendees)

Available Scenes and When to Use Each One

Microsoft has significantly expanded the scene library since Together Mode launched. In 2026, the default scenes include:

Auditorium — Best for all-hands meetings, company presentations, or training sessions with a large audience

Conference Room — Ideal for standard team meetings and working sessions

Classroom — Perfect for learning and development sessions, onboarding, or workshops

Coffee Shop and Lounge — Effective for informal catchups and casual team check-ins

Custom Branded Spaces — Organizations with Microsoft Teams Premium can upload their own scenes with company branding

Immersive Spaces: A Step Beyond Together Mode

Immersive Spaces takes the concept further by moving beyond video segmentation into a fully three-dimensional virtual environment. Available through the Mesh for Microsoft Teams integration, Immersive Spaces places customizable avatars into interactive 3D rooms where small groups can gather, collaborate around shared objects, and move between conversation areas.

Unlike Together Mode, Immersive Spaces does not require a camera. Participants navigate with a keyboard or controller and interact using spatial audio — meaning you can only clearly hear the people standing near you in the virtual space, which mimics the natural acoustics of a physical room.

Setting Up an Immersive Space

In a Teams meeting, click View and select Immersive space (3D)

Choose from available 3D environments (Lake House, the Space, Oasis, and others)

Select or customize your avatar before entering

Use WASD keys or arrow keys to move around the space

Approach other avatars to join their spatial audio conversation

Practical Use Cases in 2026 Workplaces

Virtual Team Events and Social Hours

Immersive Spaces excel at informal team bonding. The spatial audio means people naturally form smaller conversations rather than the awkward everyone-on-mute dynamic of standard video calls. Teams report higher engagement and post-event satisfaction scores when using Immersive Spaces for virtual happy hours and team socials.

Town Halls and Company Broadcasts

Together Mode's Auditorium scene is well-suited for company-wide broadcasts. The CEO or presenter speaks from the stage area while the audience appears seated, creating a more attentive atmosphere than standard gallery view. Combine this with Teams Town Hall's raised hand and Q&A features for a complete large-event experience.

Training and Workshop Sessions

The Classroom scene in Together Mode has shown measurable improvements in learner attention and participation compared to standard video meetings. Facilitators appear at the front of the room in the visual hierarchy, reinforcing the learning dynamic without anyone having to spotlight their video manually.

Together Mode vs. Immersive Spaces: Which to Use?

Use Together Mode when:

You want to keep video on and preserve real facial expressions

The meeting is 2 to 49 participants

Participants may have lower-end hardware

Use Immersive Spaces when:

The meeting is primarily social or informally collaborative

You want spatial audio to enable organic small-group conversations

Camera-off participants are common

Technical Requirements to Check Before Your Meeting

Together Mode: Requires Microsoft 365 Business Basic or higher; works best at 720p or above webcam resolution

Immersive Spaces: Requires a hardware-accelerated GPU; works on Windows, Mac, and VR headsets compatible with Windows Mixed Reality

Custom scenes require Microsoft Teams Premium

Conclusion

Together Mode and Immersive Spaces represent Microsoft's serious investment in making distributed work feel more human. They are not gimmicks — organizations that have adopted these features report measurably higher meeting engagement, reduced fatigue, and stronger team cohesion among remote employees.

If your team is still meeting in default gallery view in 2026, try Together Mode for your next team meeting. The shift in atmosphere is immediately noticeable. Your team will notice the difference too.

Share this guide with your meeting organizers and IT team to start rolling out these features in your organization today.