Microsoft and Meta partner to deliver immersive experiences for the future of work and play

The biggest Microsoft and Meta partnership since the Windows Phone days

Microsoft and Meta looked like they were on a collision course last year, poised to compete heavily for the future of work in the metaverse. But on Oct 11, both companies announced they are partnering to collaborate on how people will work and even game in virtual reality. That starts with Microsoft bringing its biggest services — Teams, Office, Windows, and even Xbox Cloud Gaming — to Meta’s Quest VR headsets.

Jeff Teper, Presidens of Microsoft Collaborative Apps and Platforms, said in his blog:

As companies and employees settle into new work norms post-pandemic, we’re living through a once-in-a-lifetime shift in work patterns. Whether work happens from home, at the office, in a warehouse or on the go, work is no longer a place, but an experience that transcends place and time.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, new patterns of work have emerged that put people, communications, and workflows at the center. In that time, Microsoft Teams has grown to 270 million monthly active users, becoming the most ubiquitous platform for workplace collaboration and business processes. Teams’ growth is a sign of how work has changed, and where it’s going.

People crave deeper, richer ways of collaborating and co-creating from wherever they are. We believe that in the not-so-distant future, the metaverse will play a key role in providing new ways of connecting. In fact, our Work Trend Index data shows that 50% of Gen Z and millennials envision doing some of their work in the metaverse in the next two years.

As a platform company, our approach to workplace productivity and collaboration is to ensure the software experiences we deliver can benefit users on all their favorite devices. In that spirit, today we are announcing several ways we are partnering with Meta to provide customers with more choice and security as they venture into the metaverse.

First, we are bringing Mesh for Microsoft Teams to Meta Quest devices. Mesh for Teams builds on years of research and Microsoft Cloud innovation, from Azure Digital Twins to Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Teams video meetings. It is designed to help people gather virtually in the place where work happens on any device, including smartphones, laptops and mixed-reality headsets. Mesh for Teams with Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2 devices will enable people to connect and collaborate as though they are together in person.

Teams meeting on VR dashboard

In addition, Microsoft 365 apps will be available on Meta Quest devices, enabling people to interact with content from their favorite productivity apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and SharePoint within VR. In the future, Windows 365 will also be available on Meta Quest devices, with the ability to stream a Windows Cloud PC including your personalized apps, content and settings.

Microsoft 365 in VR

Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory will support Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2, enabling IT administrators to provision these devices for users with a Quest for Business subscription from Meta, with confidence so that the security and management options they expect from PCs and mobile devices will carry over to VR.

Finally, Microsoft and Meta are exploring ways to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to Meta Quest Store, allowing gamers to stream hundreds of high-quality Xbox games to phones, tablets, PCs, select smart TVs, and the Meta Quest platform.

This partnership complements our commitment to HoloLens, and we are excited to continue evolving our mixed-reality devices roadmap, leading with our cloud-first approach, and with Windows and Microsoft 365 at the fore. All of this advances our efforts to build the foundations of a responsible metaverse, with security, compliance and enterprise-grade experiences as foundational to how we will continue to unlock new possibilities for the future of work.

It’s still early days for this partnership, with more details on exactly when these experiences will land in the coming months. You can expect to hear more about Teams and perhaps Microsoft’s 3D metaverse avatars tomorrow, as the company is holding its Ignite conference in Seattle, where it will discuss the future of work, security, and more.