Imagine you are a field technician fixing a piece of business
critical equipment and you just can’t seem to get it up and
running. Now with Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, you can
reach out for help and a remote expert can instruct you in
mixed reality how to get the job done. We’ve been working
hard to make Remote Assist better. Let’s dive in for more
details.
We’re excited to announce that the same core Remote Assist
experience is now available on the Android and iOS mobile
devices you already use every day. Just as in Microsoft HoloLens
Augmented Reality Markup, both the Remote Assist user and
the Remote Teams participant can annotate the real world
in 3D using phone based augmented reality while on a call.
In addition to mixed reality annotations, users can now take a
snapshot and collaboratively market it up in real-time with the
remote teams caller. This is ideal in low bandwidth
conditions or in the case that high resolution imagery is
needed to see extra fine detail. At any point, either user can
return to the live video feed. The annotated snapshot can
be saved to the camera roll for later use.
For mobile, we’ve integrated with Dynamics 365 Field Service
by means of protocol activation. Now, you can reach out
directly from the Dynamics 365 Field Service application
to the resource listed on your workorder with the click of
a button.
When a Remote Assist call is complete, the mobile user
can choose to record basic detail of the call back to the
workorder, saving them from manually entering it after the
fact. Upon choosing to post this data, they are presented with
a full list of the daily bookings from Dynamics 365 Field
Service.
In another big announcement, Microsoft HoloLens 2 is now
a supported device for Remote Assist. With this new device,
users will have a much more ergonomic and intuitive
experience with Remote Assist. Through the introduction of
articulated hand tracking, Remote Assist users can now
interact with the application in a much more intuitive way,
lowering the training cost and reducing the effect required
to operate the UI. For example, buttons can be pushed
directly as if they were there in the real world. Similarly,
on a HoloLens 2, users can directly grab windows, easily
moving them into position next to their work area. Also
with the 1080p cameras on HoloLens 2, now the Teams
side user can see higher resolution video of what the
technician is looking at, facilitating better remote instruction.
In this release, we are improving our sign-in and sign-up
flow to be clear and more streamlined for HoloLens. You
can clearly see all three steps and where you are in the
process. If you need to get a Teams license, you can now
do it right from within the app. We have more clear
messaging if there are issues during sign-up, such as a
loss of network connection. Just open the app and sign-in
for the first time. We will clearly step you through the
process for verifying Teams and getting your 90-day free
trial of Remote Assist.
Remote Assist works for ad hoc calls, but it didn’t support
scheduled meetings until now. Leveraging the meetings
functionality in Microsoft Teams, you can now see and join
upcoming and current meetings right from the app. Just
click on join meeting.
Remote Assist has long had image sharing and the capability
to take snapshots on the HoloLens, including holograms.
But now, you can view a high-quality image with the remote
expert on the call and pull back up multiple images by
clicking on the chat. Just click to open it and place it in the
space.
Despite the incredible value remote assist can provide,
showing the return on investment of mixed reality in your
organization can be a challenge up front. Now, customers
can receive regular reports of their usage data to ensure
their organization is seeing the value of Remote Assist.
