microsoft has announced that Teams together The mode will be discontinued on June 30, 2026. This feature, which placed meeting participants in shared virtual spaces such as auditoriums, classrooms, or conference rooms, will no longer be available after that date. Users will need to switch to the standard scalable gallery view or attend in-person meetings.
Custom scenes and seat assignments will also be removed when Together mode is removed. Organizations that previously used these features for branded virtual environments will need to adopt branded backgrounds, which are still supported.
Why is Microsoft removing Together mode?
Together mode was introduced in 2020 during the early stages of widespread remote work, with the goal of making video calls feel more natural by placing participants in a shared virtual space rather than separate video tiles.
Microsoft notes that the meetings landscape has evolved since then: Many companies have returned to in-person work and Teams has introduced new features, such as an expanded gallery view.
According to a Microsoft blog postThe company is retiring Together mode to simplify the meeting experience and allow engineering resources to focus on improvements that benefit all Teams meetings.
Microsoft explains that the variety of meeting viewing options has increased the cognitive load for users and caused a fragmentation of the experience between devices. The company hopes this change will result in fewer clicks, smoother meetings, and faster development of new features.
Recommended alternatives and what do they mean in practice?
Microsoft recommends several existing Teams features for users who want to maintain some of the social signals that Together mode provides. These include pinning speakers to keep specific attendees visible, highlighting presenters to emphasize the active speaker, using multiple displays to keep gallery views and content side-by-side, and applying branded backgrounds for a consistent visual environment across meetings.
Anyone currently using Together mode for recurring meetings should plan to switch to gallery view or one of the recommended alternatives before June 30. Custom scenes created or authorized by some organizations will no longer work after that date, and any scheduling templates set by default in Together mode must be updated.
Microsoft has not stated whether elements of Together mode could return in a different form. The removal appears to be part of an ongoing effort to optimize the Teams meetings interface, rather than a temporary change.
