Oculus Quest 2 gets game-changing VR workspace app
Host a boardroom meeting in VR
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Facebook has lifted the veil on a newOculus Quest 2app that allows professionals to generate a virtual meeting space.
Called Horizon Workrooms, the app aims to allow colleagues to work together through the power of virtual reality (VR), givingOculusQuest 2 owners the opportunity to collaboratively edit documents, brainstorm ideas or simply socialize with others.
Facebook says Horizon Workrooms will work across both VR and the web, and is designed to improve a team’s ability to collaborate, communicate and connect remotely in the absence of typical office spaces.
The app will bring together features like mixed-reality desk and keyboard tracking – of the sort we’veseen tested recently– hand tracking, remote desktop streaming, video conferencing integration,spatial audioand all-new Oculus avatars. You can check it all out in action via the video below.
It’s the first time these technologies are being brought together in a way that creates a different kind of productivity experience, Facebook says, and it could mark a game-changer for the practical applications of mixed reality technology.
The app will launch in beta soon, withsign-up instructions availableon Oculus’ official website, though it will be free to download to all Oculus Quest 2 owners worldwide when officially released.
Analysis: Practical reality
Only weeks ago, Facebook addeda new featureto Oculus Quest 2 devices allowing developers to createaugmented reality(AR) experiences using the headset’s camera.
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Unsurprisingly, given that the Quest 2 is essentially a games console, the most immediate application of that technology has been in the gaming sphere. Not only have developers used the platform – called the Passthrough API Experimental – to create all-new mixed reality experiences, but some haveported existing VR games into AR, too.
Facebook’s launch of Horizon Workrooms, though, looks set to take that mixed reality experience beyond gaming and into the professional working environment.
Given the necessity to work from home in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the app could give workers unable to venture into offices the space they need to accomplish tasks in a more collaborative – if not entirely traditional – manner.
That’s the theory, at least. It’s hard to imagine scores of city-based professionals picking up a Quest 2 headset just to high-five their co-worker’s avatar, but the promise of a hybrid approach – which will see the app work between both web and VR platforms – should ensure Facebook’s latest bright idea gets the audience it deserves.
Axel is TechRadar’s UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site’s Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.
Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.
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