We know that Samsung and Oculus are two separate companies, but they’ve both worked together on creating the Gear VR, which is why it is not surprising that some of the features designed for the Rift will also arrive for the Gear VR. Some of those features include Oculus Rooms and Parties which was just announced by the company.According to Oculus, “The first wave of VR was all about the magic of presence, the immersive sense of actually being inside a virtual space. The next step is to let you feel that same sense of presence with other people in VR. Finding your friends in VR is easy. Just link your Facebook and Oculus accounts or search for people by their real name or Oculus username. Once you connect and become Oculus friends, you can see when your friends are online, start a voice call, or jump into an experience together.”
So what are Rooms and Parties? Both features were originally announced a while back and in case you forgot, Oculus Parties is where you and up to three friends can participate in a voice call in VR. What makes it so special is that it will work regardless of what app you’re in, so you could be doing something else but still be part of the voice call.
As for Oculus Rooms, this is basically a virtual lounge of sorts where you get to “hang out” with your friends in VR. From there users will be able to do things together, such as play games, watch videos, and more. The features are rolling out to the Gear VR as we speak and are expected to find their way into the Rift come 2017.
Filed in . Read more about Gear VR, Oculus, Samsung and Virtual Reality (VR).