Facebook is reimagining the collaborative workspace with Horizon Workrooms, letting people meet and work together in VR and mixed-reality.
Facebook has announced the launch of the Horizon Workrooms open beta – available to download for free, on Oculus Quest 2 in countries where the device is supported.
Workrooms is the flagship VR and mixed-reality collaboration experience on Oculus, allowing remote people to work together in the same virtual rooms. It supports features like mixed-reality desk and keyboard tracking, hand tracking, remote desktop streaming, video conferencing integration, spatial audio, and the creation of Oculus Avatars.
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With Workrooms, you’re able to join a virtual meeting space in VR as an avatar, or video call into the virtual room from your computer. A virtual whiteboard is available to sketch out ideas together with others, and you can even bring your computer and keyboard into VR.
Workrooms offers a “mixed reality” experience, letting users bring their physical desk and compatible tracked keyboard into a virtual room. When it’s used with the new Oculus Remote Desktop companion app for Mac or Windows, your avatar will have access to your entire computer from within VR. All notes taken in the virtual room are simultaneously stored on the IRL computer, and the computer screen can be shared on the VR screen.
The new Oculus Avatars also come with low-latency spatial audio technology, offering a huge variety of customization options to make conversations feel more expressive, natural, and more lifelike. The end result is an experience where users can hear each other as though people are around them – all based on where they’re seated.
Every room in Workrooms offers infinite whiteboards on which you can use the controller as a pen to write ideas. The whiteboard also allows for images to be pinned and seen by all participants.
Rooms layouts can be personalized to the nature of any meeting being held, with VR furniture and seating arrangements designed at your discretion. The room even scales up and down to fit the size of the group.
Workrooms also facilitates access to a meeting room for those who do not have a VR headset. You can dial into a room from your computer by video call, and inviting participants is as easy as sending them a link. Video participants show up on a video screen in the virtual room, just like a real conference room. Up to 16 people can participate in one meeting room in VR, and up to 50 people can participate in each call.
Every room in Workrooms comes with a place on the web to capture notes and action items during a meeting, share links and files – and chat with other participants. It also allows you to sync Outlook and Google Calendar to make it easier to schedule meetings and send invites.
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