The highly-anticipated social feature will begin rolling out on Quest 2 headsets soon as part of the v41 update.
When Meta (formerly Facebook) launched its Facebook Spaces beta for the Oculus Rift back in 2017, the VR app gave us a glimpse of the future of socializing through VR technology. You and your friends could hang out at your home or in a 360-degree video, draw and play games using your Oculus Touch controllers, broadcast live streams on your Facebook feed and even make video calls, all in VR.
The platform never got out of the beta stage and was eventually shut down in order to make room for Horizon Worlds. Unfortunately, there were some really great features about Spaces that never made it to the company’s social VR metaverse.
This past week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the next step in the company’s metaverse roadmap with the rollout of Horizon Home as part of the v41 Quest update, and from the looks of it, it appears as though that Meta is bringing some of Spaces aforementioned features back from the dead.
Zuckerberg posted a video of himself with free solo climber Alex Honnold watching Honnold’s film The Soloist VR together from within the Quest home environment. According to Meta, Horizon Home is designed to make it easier for you to hang out with your family and friends, watch videos, and jump into games and apps together right from your Quest headset.
Honnold was amazed by the experience, saying, “This is quite an experience for me, this is kinda blowing my mind.” This coming from a guy who climbs mountains for a living and who’s been profiled by both 60 Minutes and The New York Times, featured on the cover of National Geographic, and starred in numerous adventure films.
“Met up with legendary climber Alex Honnold in the new Horizon Home — launching with Quest v41 update to bring social presence into your virtual home as soon as you put on your headset. Invite friends to hang out, watch videos together, or jump into apps right from your virtual home. More options to customize your home space currently in development. Also, check out Alex’s 360 film The Soloist VR where he takes you 1000 ft up free climbing the Dolomites!”
It was unclear if Zuckerberg was live streaming or if it was a pre-recorded video. Horizon Home looks like it was built off of the backbone of Spaces, which did allow for live streaming. I was a Spaces beta tester and found the process to be very easy. I personally would love to see this feature brought back for Horizon Home as well as Horizon Worlds.
In addition to the new social capabilities, Meta plans on rolling out additional home environments for you to choose from. The company says that, eventually, you’ll be able to customize your virtual home, something that many users have been asking for. I’m personally hoping they turn the Quest Cybercity home environment into something that I can actually walk around in and add my own little personal touches to.
Horizon Home will be part of the Quest v41 update that will begin rolling out soon on Quest 2 headsets!
Image Credit: Meta
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