Teams Real Simple with Pictures: Setting up a Mesh Event and Installing the Mesh App

This blog is part of a series on Teams. For more articles, check back often

Written: 29/10/2023 | Updated: N/A

Last week, a cocktail of corp work and Airlift meant I had to skip my usual sunday night blog spot: but having swallowed much of that the last few days I am keen to get back on it and pick up where we left off with Microsoft Mesh. Previously we took a first glance at Immersive Spaces and how these could be accessed through a Microsoft Teams Meeting whether that meeting were scheduled or ad-hoc. We looked at the features. We looked at the pre-reqs. How you can transition between the different environments. All up? It was a good experience. And one that I happily relayed back to my good friend Vesa [Nopanen] since Vesa is, after all, Mr Metaverse. It really did improve my opinion of metaverse within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. And I’m sure we’ll see loads more development and innovations over the coming months and years. But Today? I’m going to pivot and setup an event through the Microsoft Mesh portal itself. That’s right – there is a Mesh Portal. And there is a Mesh App too. And whilst I know that to be able to set up Mesh events (as in standalone Mesh Events independent of Microsoft Teams Meetings) you’ll need a Teams Premium Licence as you need the said licence to be able to access this portal. Now, I haven’t attempted to set one up prior to this blog. I have been too bogged down and stuck in the mud on the other commitments to my own business and to Microsoft which are both long and various. So its a good old fashioned exploratory today. And since Mesh is in public preview I am just going to be upfront and state that I don’t know – nor have any insider knowledge – whether Premium will be the minimum licencing requirement for the Mesh Portal and the ability to set up Mesh Events in the future. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t if it fails to encourage adoption and usage. As always time will ultimately tell – but since the Mesh Portal probably won’t look anything like it does today a year from now, it’s a good time to get stuck in early.

Let’s go.

This blog will cover

• Checking for Teams Premium Licence
• Accessing the Microsoft Mesh Portal
• Setting up a Microsoft Mesh event
• Installing the Microsoft Mesh App and Joining the Event

Note this blog will have abridged steps which will assume some experience with the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre and licencing. All blogs will use the new Teams Desktop Client 2.1+ where possible. This is configured in a Ring 4 test tenant and the desktop client is used with Windows 11 Enterprise. For web, Edge is used.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft Teams licence (within Microsoft 365 licence) for testing. For immersive spaces in Teams, licenses for one of the following: Teams Essentials, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft 365 E3/E5, and Office 365 E1/E3/E5
• Teams Premium Licence to access Mesh Portal
• Global Administrator or subsequent derivative role for licence configuration
• Setup of Avatars (see here, also discussed in article)

CHECKING FOR TEAMS PREMIUM LICENCE
First, let’s check that the user we need to access the Mesh Portal has a Teams Premium Licence. This will assume that the user already has a Microsoft 365 licence which allows them to work with Immersive Spaces, has configured Avatars and that the Teams Premium Licence has been purchased

1.) Log into https://login.microsoftonline.com and select Admin from the left rail or waffle

2.) In the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre select Users then Active Users and search for the user whose licences you want to check. The Teams Premium licence may already be assigned and clearly visible.

3.) If it is not, select the user, and on the flyout to the right select Licences and Apps and tick Microsoft Teams Premium Licence and then Save

4.) An alternate way to assign licences is via Microsoft Entra ID through Users, then All Users. Select the User and then assign the Teams Premium licence through Licences

Now that the user has a Microsoft 365 licence and a Teams Premium licence assigned they can access the Microsoft Mesh Portal.

ACCESSING THE MICROSOFT MESH PORTAL
Let’s access the Microsoft Mesh Portal with our configured user

1.) Login to https://portal.mesh.microsoft.com with your user credentials

2.) Welcome to Microsoft Mesh

3.) If you do not have a Teams Premium Licence you will be shown the Time to Upgrade screen and will not be able to access the Mesh Portal

SETTING UP A MICRSOFT MESH EVENT
Now we can access the Mesh Portal with the correct licencing, we can go ahead and set up a Mesh event

1.) Select Create Event

2.) Set the details of the event

• Event Name: In this example Teams Nation 2024 Kick Off
• Start Time and End Time
• Description: optional but recommended
• Thumbnail Image: optional but recommended
• Room Configuration: set to Single Room or Multiple Room
• Room Capacity: 16 (which is currently at the time of writing the max for a single Mesh Room)
• Max participants: 16 for single room, 200 for multiple room

Once done select Next

3.) Since Mesh comes with preconfigured environments such as we saw in the last blog including Oasis and Meadow select Start with an Environment and then Next

4.) Select an Environment. This example uses Oasis. Then select Next

5.) Set others to invite to the Mesh Event

• Coorganisers: others who can manage the event settings and manage hosting tools within the Mesh App
• Attendees: those who will attend the event. Note at the time of writing this is just others within your own organisation.

Once done select Create Event

6.) The event is now created and shows back the details. Note that the Event cannot be joined until the Mesh App is installed. This is shown by a transparent button at the top right.

7.) In terms of invites, the Mesh Event is created in Outlook for Organisers, Coorganisers and Attendees. These look very much like Microsoft Teams meetings, however all the links are pointed at the Mesh App whether that is for the PC or for the Quest device.

8.) It also shows in Microsoft Teams for invitees, again all links point to the Microsoft Mesh App.

Our event is ready to go, however, if our users have not already done so, they now need to install the Microsoft Mesh App

INSTALLING THE MICROSOFT MESH APP AND JOINING THE EVENT
In order to join Mesh Events, we need to install the Microsoft Mesh App for our users.

1.) Go to https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/microsoft-mesh/9NLXZJ1FDBD7?hl=en-gb&gl=US and select Install

2.) In the Microsoft Store, select Get

3.) The Microsoft Mesh App will download. This may take some time as it’s about 170Mb.

4.) Once done, from the Windows Start Bar Search and Open the Microsoft Mesh App

5.) Select Sign In. You may need to authenticate to continue.

6.) Accept the licence agreement. Select Agree and Continue.

7.) Select Join to join the Mesh Event

8.) Select your Avatar as well as Audio settings and then Join Now

9.) Mesh will download the environment content if it needs, and then you are in the Mesh Event

Our job here is done. It was straightforward to setup a Mesh Event in the Mesh Portal, invite attendees and then join the Mesh Event through the Mesh App after it was downloaded from the Microsoft Store. Of course, this was all setup and deployed for one person, and one person who uses technology all the time. Administrators will need to think about planning to roll out the Mesh App, but now is a good time given that Mesh events is in it’s infancy and they will more likely be asked to sooner than later, especially as adoption picks up and more people look to use Mesh Events across organisations.

Q&A

Q. What if the Microsoft Store is blocked on my machine?
A. If the Microsoft Store is blocked and you cannot download the Microsoft Mesh App then you will need to ask your administrator to push the app out via Microsoft Intune, or via some other method. The Microsoft Store is usually blocked for administrative purposes

Q. Do you need the Mesh App for a Mesh Event?
A. Yes, there is no web experience and you cannot join simply via a browser. Whether you join via the Mesh Portal, or from Outlook, or Teams, it all directs to the Mesh Desktop App, or to the Mesh App in Quest.

Q. Can you block users from using the Mesh App?
A. Yes. By default all users will be able to use the Mesh App to join Mesh Events. However, if you don’t want them to be able to use Mesh Experiences including the portal and Mesh App you can create a policy within https://config.office.com which disables the ability of users to be able to login and use them