In the context of the development of teleworking and videoconferencing meetings, Facebook offers a brand new alternative: Horizon Workrooms, a virtual reality workspace allowing teams to communicate and work remotely.
Launched on Thursday August 19 by Oculus, a Facebook subsidiary dedicated to virtual reality, the Horizon Workrooms application brings together up to 16 people – represented by avatars – in a virtual meeting room in order to discuss and make decisions or share documents.
The application seems to be the very first step towards the “metaverse”, in other words a meta-universe, a notion evoked by Mark Zuckerberg at the end of July. According to him, the metaverse would be the worthy successor of the mobile internet and the future of the social network, hence the need to develop alternative and virtual working methods.
“Our way of working is changing. More and more people now prefer to work remotely, with more flexible options, and are rethinking the way they go to the office. But without the right connection tools, remote work can be complicated to manage, ”Oculus also explains in a press release.
The tool, which is currently free, can be downloaded in beta in the 22 countries (including France) where the Oculus Quest 2, the virtual reality headset marketed by Facebook, is available. People not equipped with this headset, however, can join the virtual work room by a simple video call.
Also concerned about public concerns about its personal data practices, Facebook specifies that shared documents or conversations will not be listened to or stored in the company’s servers for advertising or other purposes.