By now Facebook’s plans and interest in virtual reality (VR) is pretty well-known, what with them acquiring Oculus and launching support for 360-degree photo and video uploads. In fact just recently Facebook launched a new Oculus Go standalone mobile VR headset, but it seems that the company’s VR efforts don’t just stop there.
Announced at the same event, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that in 2018, the company plans on launching a VR “Venues” app. This is a social app of sorts where users will be able to “attend” live concerts and events virtually with other friends. Given that VR can feel a bit lonely due to your eyes and ears kind of isolating you from the real world, creating an app like Venues could help with that.
However we should point out that the concept behind Venues isn’t exactly new. For example we’ve seen how companies such as Samsung have broadcasted their product launches live in VR to allow multiple people around the world to tune in at the same time. We’ve also seen similar concepts where there is a virtual cinema where friends can meet up in a virtual space to enjoy a movie together.
That being said given Facebook’s strength lies in the number of users it has, we suppose it does make it easier for users to connect. Either way we’ll have to wait until next year to find out more.
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