Together Mode in Microsoft Teams is a great way to make video meetings more engaging by allowing folks to focus on faces and body language and nonverbal cues to help with communication. It’s had a bunch of minor improvements since it debuted during the pandemic and was used at NBA games (like the ability to create your own Together Mode backgrounds). Microsoft will soon be releasing a few more improvements to Together Mode to include:

• You can see the name labels that support status icons, such as microphone, active speaker, spotlight, or pin within the meeting.
• You can see raised hands and reactions within the view.
• Your own video in the gallery will be removed. This is to avoid duplication of the self-preview.

This will make Together mode much more useful, as you could only see these features in gallery modes previously.

Image courtesy Microsoft.