Over three years after acquiring Oculus, Facebook is debuting its first public virtual reality application called Spaces. This product is an amalgamation of the company’s social platform and the virtual world which it had first created with the launch of Oculus Rooms earlier last year.
Spaces is aimed at removing the haggles of using different applications to stay in touch and brings your complete social identity to life through virtual personas. It wants to eliminate the mediating platform such as messaging or video chat apps and connect you to other Facebook users on a common playground, says the official blog post.
Here, you can create an identity that closely represents your real life persona as it will enable others, friends or family, to recognize you in an instant and make partying together feel less awkward. You’ll be provided with every option to customize your appearance, starting with the eye color or hairstyle to the facial features and more until your look fits with your identity. Facebook Spaces wants you to feel completely comfortable and homely in the VR world as well.
Now, you can’t just download the app and roam about in the open world designed for Spaces. The next step would involve adding all the Facebook friends who’re using the platform and spending time with them doing — well, a whole of stuff. Since you cannot come, only four friends are allowed within a space at a time, and just stare at each other’s faces. You can obviously talk but Spaces is meant not only that.
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Thus, Facebook is also providing you with a bunch of tools which will enable you to draw, watch 360 videos, complete video calls on Messenger, play multiplayer games and click VR selfies of the avatars hanging out together. You can also draw in the air with a virtual marker and store your memories on your timeline, where the avatars can be tagged as well.
This platform is currently being launched in beta for access through the Oculus Rift headset and Touch controllers. You can download it right away from the Oculus Store to connect with other friends using the application on their headsets. Thus, you will now be able to hang out in a fun, interactive virtual environment as if you were in the same room — without actually having to leave your room. With the launch of this platform, Facebook is looking to tap the masses and bring them one step closer to experiencing virtual reality. The Spaces app is currently
The Spaces VR app is currently being made available only on the Oculus Rift in the Early Access section but is expected to make its way to other platforms in due time. It is also not being extended to mobile-powered VR platforms, such as Samsung’s Gear VR. The social media giant is currently focused on building an intuitive and interactive experience, which isn’t fully rendered in smartphone VR platforms. Spaces will, thus, be your go-to place after school or college when you’re looking to catch up with your friends – but we will have to wait for virtual reality to be commercialized to that stage in the coming years.
We’ve only just scratched the surface of social VR technology. In the future, it will continue to transform the way people around the world stay connected with their communities and those closest to them.
