Microsoft held its SharePoint Virtual Summit today as part of its SharePoint Conference North America. The company announced SharePoint spaces, bringing mixed reality to the platform. The new feature allows users to create "visually compelling" spaces that anyone can use, "on any device."
Spaces will allow for new collaboration scenarios; for example, you can create a room full of experts for product development. Another example that Microsoft used was for recruiting and onboarding, where an employee can tour a campus or building using 3D maps, or they can learn more about the company.
Microsoft says that it"s previously been expensive to build these types of mixed reality applications for businesses, and that they typically require "costly headsets". The firm said that spaces can be built with "point-and-click simplicity", and it will provide templates to create environments with "beautiful surroundings, ambient sounds, rich textures, and lighting." On top of the environment, you can add your own data, which can include documents, images, and so on.
SharePoint spaces, as you might expect, are powered by the Microsoft Graph, allowing for personalized experiences. The feature will be part of all Office 365 commercial plans, and you can sign up for an early preview now.