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Yesterday, Facebook announced a new virtual reality conference room app for its Oculus Quest 2 headset. A beta version of the immersive work meetings app, named Horizon Workrooms, is now available for anyone who has the VR headset.
“We shouldn't really have to physically be together to feel present or collaborate or brainstorm,” Zuckerberg said in a press briefing, per Axios.
But...does anyone want this? Twitter reactions would have you believe the answer is a resounding “NO!!” And while things get a little more complicated when looking at other sources, the evidence still points in basically the same direction.
For example, a June Morning Brew-Harris Poll survey found that US adults have mixed feelings about the idea of using AR/VR at work: 27% said they’re very or somewhat excited, 29% said they’re not very or not at all excited, and 31% said they’re neutral.
- Among those who are neutral or excited about using AR/VR at work, nearly 40% said training is the most exciting application, while just 18% said real-time feedback, and 16% said remote collaboration.
These responses could reflect general priorities (i.e., workers might simply be more jazzed up about development opportunities than collaboration). And, obviously, training sessions canbe meetings too. But the data still suggests that relatively few US adults are jumping for joy at the prospect of metaversifying common meetings, like feedback sessions or group brainstorms, a lá Workrooms.
“I don’t think that this kind of remote avatar collaboration...is high on people’s list,” Victoria Petrock, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, told Emerging Tech Brew. “I think people have gotten used to working remotely, and part of the beauty of working remotely is that you don’t have to be constantly on display when collaborating with people.”
Petrock said more specialized applications of enterprise VR have a better chance of catching on—like training and development, event planning, or even medical professionals using it for certain forms of therapy.
Zoom out: Facebook’s 10,000+-person mixed reality division ain’t the only organization trying to make immersive remote work happen.
Microsoft is working on it with its Hololens and Mesh projects, which led CEO Satya Nadella to coin the accursed phrase “enterprise metaverse” in mid-July. And a handful of startups have raised VC cash for similar products: To date, virtual HQ startups TeamFlow, Gather, and Spatial have pulled in $49.9 million, $26 million, and $22.3 million, respectively.—DM