Introducing room interoperability

For anyone who has ever had to participate in a Microsoft Teams meeting with only Google-based conference room hardware—or vice versa—things just got a whole lot simpler. As part of the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) conference in Barcelona, the two tech giants announced a long-anticipated partnership that would bring true interoperability to the common meeting space.

The Death of the “Walled Garden”

For many years, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet operated as what could best be described as a “walled garden.” Users in an environment that used a single technology had a much harder time taking advantage of the others.

This is no longer the case. Google has formally shared an update on its blog that two-way interoperability between Google Meet and Microsoft Teams is finally happening, on by default. Individuals on a ChromeOS-based Google Meet device can join a Microsoft Teams meeting, and those using Windows-based Microsoft Teams Rooms can join a Google Meet call.

Beyond the Connection

While this is certainly monumental from the perspective of Google and Microsoft, and for users of these platforms, this partnership goes beyond simple interoperability.

Google also showcased its AI-powered Live Translation feature, which translates speech into other languages in near real time. As Quentin Esterhuizen, Product Lead for Google Meet, explained at the summit, this partnership, along with the many initiatives and technological strides both Google and Microsoft have made recently, will provide users with a “seamless experience” in which technology simply gets out of the way of your conversations. In other words, after years of technological advancement, we finally have a universal meeting room for everyone!