Facebook's New Remote Work VR App, Is Step Towards 'Metaverse'.
Facebook's Horizon Workroom's app is currently in the beta stage.
It makes use of the company's Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets.
The app allows avatar versions of users to meet in VR work spaces, such as conference rooms. Up to 16 people can meet virtually, and up to 50 can join in via video conference.
Facebook was explicit that conversations occurring in Workroom would not be mined for ad targeting.
Facebook premieres the app as many companies have delayed employees returning to physical offices.
COVID-19 surges due to waning vaccinations and the onset of the Delta variant ... .
... have led to subdued reopenings and new lockdown measures all over the world.
The app is also in line with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's notion of a 'metaverse,' ... ... in which the internet becomes more "embodied.".
The term comes from a dystopian novel published in the early 1990s, when the internet was just becoming ubiquitous.
'Metaverse' refers to a merging of digital and physical spaces.
This [Workroom app] is kind of one of those foundational steps in that direction, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, Facebook VP Reality Labs, Reuters.
Zuckerberg announced in July that a Facebook product team is devoted exclusively to working towards a metaverse