Latest Skype Update Uses AI To Make Group Video Chats More Inclusive And Immersive

In July Microsoft added a feature to its Teams messaging app called Together Mode as a means to help fight zoom fatigue. It utilizes AI powered segmentation technology so as to make everyone look like they are in a shared room together rather than the separate disconnected boxes we’ve become used to. Doing so helps everyone pick up on other participants nonverbal cues more easily as well as focus on each other more naturally rather than looking from section to section on your screen.

Now the feature is coming to the masses in the form of a Skype update. Provided there’s at least 5 participants with their webcams enabled the feature will be available when hanging out virtually with friends and family. This should help make virtual hang outs feel at least a little more natural. What’s great about this update is that you don’t need to have the app installed, the feature is available through the web client as well. So long as at least one person has a Skype account they’re able to invite everyone else to participate in the call and use the new Together Mode.

It’s an interesting use of AI and technology to make the best of these strange times we live in where many of us spend more time interacting with others through our webcams than we do in person. It’s a great step forward to increase the natural feeling of all these video calls we’re constantly hopping on and battling zoom fatigue.