Horizon Workrooms Offers a Glimpse into Facebook’s Vision for the Future
By Nick Grous
Analyst
This week Facebook released a new app for its Oculus Quest headsets, Horizon Workrooms, a virtual workspace in which to connect teams. Currently in “open beta,” Horizon Workrooms are virtual meeting rooms in which individuals and their avatars can interact in an immersive and collaborative experience. Check out Mark Zuckerberg’s demo.
With features like spatial audio, hand tracking, passthrough camera feeds, and plenty more, we believe the app is beginning to transform digital immersion. Although it is not a game-changing must-have application yet, Horizon Workshops does provide a glimpse into the future or, at least, Facebook’s hope for the future.
After missing the vertical integration associated with desktop and mobile computing, Facebook is going all-in on virtual and augmented reality, VR and AR, respectively. In addition to apps like Horizon Workrooms, Facebook owns and operates Oculus and has been aggressive in making VR- and AR-related acquisitions. In fact, roughly 20% of its employees are working on either VR or AR.
Positioned as a vertically integrated player in VR and AR, it appears Facebook hopes to own the next generation of internet experiences. Or, as Mark Zuckerberg would say, “In the coming years, I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company.”