Microsoft Retires Teams’ Together Mode to Simplify Video and Boost Performance

Microsoft is phasing out the “Together” mode in Teams, the virtual meeting feature it introduced in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to make remote participants feel like they were in the same shared space. The company now wants users to rely on the standard Gallery view instead, arguing that the change will cut complexity and improve video performance.

The decision, outlined in Microsoft’s Teams Insider Blog, marks a shift away from one of the more visually distinctive elements of the platform in favour of a simpler, more resource-efficient setup.

According to Microsoft, Together mode has become more of a liability than a benefit as hybrid and in-office work patterns have returned. The company says the feature increases “cognitive load for users” and “adds implementation complexity across platforms,” making Teams harder to run optimally across devices.

Microsoft also acknowledges that Together mode can degrade the experience on less powerful hardware. On mobile phones and other “modest” devices that lack strong processing power, the composited virtual room effect can lead to a choppy video experience. That runs counter to what many users now expect: stable, smooth calls that work reliably regardless of their device.

By steering users toward Gallery mode, Microsoft is trying to rein in those trade-offs. Gallery doesn’t generate a shared virtual environment; it simply arranges participant tiles in a more traditional grid, which is less demanding computationally.

Microsoft is positioning Gallery as the default that better fits the current moment. The company says Gallery will enable “smoother video on modest devices” thanks to adaptive video tile counts that help prevent machines from being overloaded. In practice, that means Teams can adjust how many participant tiles are rendered and at what quality, based on the capabilities of the user’s device.

Dropping Together mode also lets Microsoft simplify the overall meeting interface. Fewer layout modes and fewer special effects reduce the complexity both for users and for Teams’ underlying codebase, which Microsoft describes as suffering from “implementation complexity” when advanced modes like Together are enabled across multiple platforms.

Microsoft says those freed-up resources can now be reallocated to “foundational video improvements.” The company specifically points to areas such as:

• Super-resolution – techniques aimed at sharpening or upscaling video feeds.
• Denoising – reducing visual noise in low-light or low-quality streams.
• Improved colour accuracy – making participants’ video look more natural and consistent across devices.

These underlying enhancements could matter more to everyday users than a distinct viewing mode, particularly for those who have struggled with call quality or unreliable performance.

The change also comes against a backdrop of persistent frustration from many Teams users. The platform is often criticized for performance issues and for feeling overly complex. Microsoft’s move to retire Together mode aligns directly with those complaints: reduce visual and technical overhead, and channel engineering attention into speed, stability and core video quality.

The company is effectively betting that fewer features, executed more efficiently, will make Teams feel lighter and more responsive, especially on lower-end devices and in bandwidth-constrained environments.