Together Mode
This article describes how to implement Microsoft Teams Together Mode with Azure Communication Services Calling SDKs. Together Mode enhances virtual meetings and calls, making them feel more personal. By creating a unified view that places everyone in a shared background, participants can connect seamlessly and collaborate effectively.
Important
Functionality described in this article is currently in public preview. This preview version is provided without a service-level agreement, and we don't recommend it for production workloads. Certain features might not be supported or might have constrained capabilities. For more information, see Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews.
Prerequisites
- An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.
- A deployed Communication Services resource. Create a Communication Services resource.
- A user's access token to enable the calling client. For more information, see Create and manage access tokens.
- Optional: Complete the quickstart to add voice calling to your application
Support
The following tables define support for Together Mode in Azure Communication Services.
Identities and call types
The following table shows support for call and identity types.
Identities | Teams meeting | Room | 1:1 call | Group call | 1:1 Teams interop call | Group Teams interop call |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Communication Services user | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |||
Microsoft 365 user | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Operations
The following table shows support for individual APIs in Calling SDK to individual identity types.
Operations | Communication Services user | Microsoft 365 user |
---|---|---|
Start Together Mode stream | ✔️ [1] | |
Get Together Mode stream | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Get scene size | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Get seating map | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Change scene | ||
Change seat assignment |
[1] Start Together Mode can only be called by a Microsoft 365 user with the role of organizer, co-organizer, or presenter.
SDKs
The following table shows support for Together Mode feature in individual Azure Communication Services SDKs.
Platforms | Web | Web UI | iOS | iOS UI | Android | Android UI | Windows |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Is Supported | ✔️ |
Install the SDK
Use the npm install
command to install the Azure Communication Services Common and Calling SDK for JavaScript:
npm install @azure/communication-common --save
npm install @azure/communication-calling --save
Initialize required objects
A CallClient
instance is required for most call operations. When you create a new CallClient
instance, you can configure it with custom options like a Logger
instance.
With the CallClient
instance, you can create a CallAgent
instance by calling the createCallAgent
. This method asynchronously returns a CallAgent
instance object.
The createCallAgent
method uses CommunicationTokenCredential
as an argument. It accepts a user access token.
You can use the getDeviceManager
method on the CallClient
instance to access deviceManager
.
const { CallClient } = require('@azure/communication-calling');
const { AzureCommunicationTokenCredential} = require('@azure/communication-common');
const { AzureLogger, setLogLevel } = require("@azure/logger");
// Set the logger's log level
setLogLevel('verbose');
// Redirect log output to console, file, buffer, REST API, or whatever location you want
AzureLogger.log = (...args) => {
console.log(...args); // Redirect log output to console
};
const userToken = '<USER_TOKEN>';
callClient = new CallClient(options);
const tokenCredential = new AzureCommunicationTokenCredential(userToken);
const callAgent = await callClient.createCallAgent(tokenCredential, {displayName: 'optional Azure Communication Services user name'});
const deviceManager = await callClient.getDeviceManager()
How to best manage SDK connectivity to Microsoft infrastructure
The Call Agent
instance helps you manage calls (to join or start calls). In order to work your calling SDK needs to connect to Microsoft infrastructure to get notifications of incoming calls and coordinate other call details. Your Call Agent
has two possible states:
Connected - A Call Agent
connectionStatue value of Connected
means the client SDK is connected and capable of receiving notifications from Microsoft infrastructure.
Disconnected - A Call Agent
connectionStatue value of Disconnected
states there's an issue that is preventing the SDK it from properly connecting. Call Agent
should be re-created.
invalidToken
: If a token is expired or is invalidCall Agent
instance disconnects with this error.connectionIssue
: If there's an issue with the client connecting to Microsoft infrascture, after many retriesCall Agent
exposes theconnectionIssue
error.
You can check if your local Call Agent
is connected to Microsoft infrastructure by inspecting the current value of connectionState
property. During an active call you can listen to the connectionStateChanged
event to determine if Call Agent
changes from Connected to Disconnected state.
const connectionState = callAgentInstance.connectionState;
console.log(connectionState); // it may return either of 'Connected' | 'Disconnected'
const connectionStateCallback = (args) => {
console.log(args); // it will return an object with oldState and newState, each of having a value of either of 'Connected' | 'Disconnected'
// it will also return reason, either of 'invalidToken' | 'connectionIssue'
}
callAgentInstance.on('connectionStateChanged', connectionStateCallback);
Implement Together Mode
Together Mode is an extended feature of the core Call
API. You first need to import calling Features from the Calling SDK:
import { Features} from "@azure/communication-calling";
Then you can get the Together Mode API object from the call instance:
const togetherModeFeature = call.feature(Features.TogetherMode);
Receive events when Together Mode stream starts or updates
You can subscribe to the event togetherModeStreamsUpdated
to receive notifications when Together Mode starts or updates. The event contains information about rendering the added video stream.
// event : { added: TogetherModeVideoStream[]; removed: TogetherModeVideoStream[] }
togetherModeFeature.on('togetherModeStreamsUpdated', (event) => {
event.added.forEach(async stream => {
// stream can be rendered as a remote video stream
});
});
Get Together Mode stream
You can access Together Mode streams through the property togetherModeStream
.
const togetherModeStreams = togetherModeFeature.togetherModeStream;
Together Mode Stream Properties | Description |
---|---|
id |
Unique number used to identify the stream. |
mediaStreamType |
Returns the Together Mode stream type. The value of mediaStreamType is always video . |
isReceiving |
Returns a Boolean value indicating if video packets are received. |
size |
Returns the Together Mode StreamSize with information about the width and height of the stream in pixels. |
Start Together Mode for all participants
Microsoft 365 users with role organizer, co-organizer, or presenter can start Together Mode for everyone in the meeting. When Together Mode starts, all subscribers to the togetherModeStreamsUpdated
event receive notification that enables participants to render Together Mode.
togetherModeFeature.start();
End Together Mode
Together Mode automatically terminates for all participants if no video stream is detected from any participant for a duration of one minute. There's no API to end Together Mode.
Get coordinates of participants in Together Mode
The property togetherModeSeatingMap
provides coordinates for individual participants in the stream. Developers can use these coordinates to overlay participant info such as display name or visual features like spotlight, hand raised, and reactions on the stream.
// returns Map<string, TogetherModeSeatingPosition>
// where the key is the participant ID
// and value of type TogetherModeSeatingPosition is the position relative to the sceneSize
// TogetherModeSeatingPosition {
// top: number;
// left: number;
// width: number;
// height: number;
// }
const seatingMap = togetherModeFeature.togetherModeSeatingMap;
Manage scene size
The sceneSize
property specifies the dimensions (width and height) of the HTML container that houses the togetherMode
video stream. The seating positions of participants are calculated based on the dimensions of the scene size. If scene size isn't provided, the calculation defaults to a width of 1,280 pixels and a height of 720 pixels.
const togetherModeContainerSize = { width: 500, height: 500 };
// To set the scene size
togetherModeFeature.sceneSize = togetherModeContainerSize;
// To get the scene size
console.log(`Current scene has the following size: ${JSON.stringify(togetherModeFeature.sceneSize )}`)
Receive events when scene or seatings updates
Note
Only Microsoft 365 users with role organizer, co-organizer, or presenter can change scene or assignment of participants in Together Mode. These changes can only be made from the Teams Client.
If there's a scene change or seating change, the togetherModeSceneUpdated
or togetherModeSeatingUpdated
events are raised respectively, providing an updated calculation of the participant seating positions.
const seatUpdate = (participantSeatingMap) => {
participantSeatingMap.forEach((participantID, seatingCoordinates) => {
console.log(`User with ID: ${participantID} has new coordinates ${JSON.stringify(seatingCoordinates)} `)
})
}
togetherModeFeature.on('togetherModeSceneUpdated', seatUpdate);
togetherModeFeature.on('togetherModeSeatingUpdated', seatUpdate);
Troubleshooting
Code | Subcode | Result Category | Reason | Resolution |
---|---|---|---|---|
403 | 46303 | ExpectedError | The participant’s role doesn’t have the necessary permissions to call the togetherMode start API. |
Only Microsoft 365 users with role organizer, co-organizer, or presenter can start Together Mode. You can check the role of a user via role property on instance of Call class. |
403 | 46304 | ExpectedError | Together Mode started in an unsupported calling scenario. | Ensure Together Mode is started only in group call or meeting scenarios. |
403 | 46306 | ExpectedError | Together Mode start API called by an Azure Communication Services user. |
Only Microsoft 365 users with role organizer, co-organizer, or presenter can start Together Mode. |