Facebook is ready to give you and your friends a new place to hang out -- in VR. Still, for some reason, there will be selfie sticks.
The newest "platform" from the social network, Facebook Spaces, takes place entirely in VR using the Oculus Rift. It gives you the ability to create your very own personalized avatar using your Facebook photos, through which you'll interact with your friends, family, and just about everything else you can imagine in the virtual world.
Rachel Franklin, Facebook's Head of Social VR, took the stage to unveil Spaces to the world at F8. She called it "the beginnings of social VR," -- but it's clear that the platform is being developed with much bigger aspirations in mind.
You can invite up to three friends into your Space at once, where you'll be able to interact with the virtual world together through a variety of activities. You won't just be stuck in one spot, either -- Facebook's entire library of 360 videos and photos are available, so you can hang out at a carnival or even go to space.
Yes, for some reason, your virtual self still depends on a selfie stick to snap a photo.
If your friends and family don't have an Oculus Rift, they can video call into your Space using Messenger's video calling function. It definitely doesn't look like it's too much fun to watch your friends' disembodied avatars joking around in VR while you're stuck IRL -- but until the the headsets are adopted on a wider scale, Spaces will need a way to get other people interested in using it.
Franklin outlined the three primary building blocks from which Spaces is constructed: The ability to be yourself in VR, the ability to invite your family and friends into your digital world, and finally, a space that’s your own, to create what you want to build “a magical canvas for shared experiences.”
Spaces launches today in beta form for the Oculus Rift and Touch.
