The first wave of VR gears was mostly focused about gaming and experience of being in a virtual reality world. Now, there's a new technology that brings social networking possible to Gear VR.
This is the first time that people can connect online with other people in their network through virtual reality devices. With Oculus' recent announcement of Oculus Rooms and Parties, it is now possible for Gear VR owners to chat online with Facebook friends and share the same experiences together.
Since Facebook bought Oculus back in 2014, it is not unusual that the company incorporated social aspects in its VR devices. Connecting with other users is easy since Facebook has 1.8 billion users online. Gear VR owners only need to link their Oculus and Facebook accounts and they can now find friends and other users by searching for their email or username.
Oculus has also launched a chat room called Oculus Parties. People can connect with up to four friends and start a voice chat together. While connected in Occulus Parties, the group can access the Oculus Rooms. It is platform where people can play simple games or watch videos together. Aside from games and videos, there are also apps in the Oculus Room that is already integrated and ready to launch.
For now, only Gear VR is compatible with Oculus Parties and Rooms and only four people can connect together online. But according to Engadget, it will be bringing the same experience to Rift users by 2017 as well. And this is just the beginning of social media virtual reality according to Digital Trends. "We'll continue building fun ways to share presence and take social interactions in VR to a whole new level," Oculus says.
With virtual reality taking a different direction towards being more social, the future is exciting for the VR community. While it is unknown where social media virtual reality will take the future of VR, it looks like it's quite bright.
