Facebook wants to replace in-person business meetings and Zoom calls with a virtual reality world where people are represented by avatars.
The company revealed its plans with an open beta test of its “Horizon Workrooms” app on Thursday — part of Mark Zuckerberg’s broader plans for Facebook to dominate the “metaverse.”
Facebook users access Horizon Workrooms while wearing the company’s Oculus Quest 2 headsets. Once inside, they are represented by crude-looking avatars that can talk, raise their hands, write on virtual whiteboards and make presentations on a virtual projector.
The rooms can support up to 16 users with Oculus headsets, which cost $300 each. Up to 34 additional users can also join the rooms using video calls, according to Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg said the feature would allow many workers who are often forced live in big cities like New York and Los Angeles to move to more far-flung locations and work remotely.
“In five years from now, people are going to be able to live where they want and work from wherever they want — but are going to be able to feel present as if they’re together when they’re doing that,” Zuckerberg said in a Thursday morning interview with Gayle King on CBS that was conducted partially in virtual reality.
“Opportunities should be able to everyone,” he added.
But Zuckerberg has also seen the rise of remote work as an opportunity to slash his employees’ pay.
Last year, the Facebook founder told employees who want to work remotely from cheaper areas that the company will cut their salaries, warning of “severe ramifications” for any employees who lied about their locations.
Other big tech companies like Twitter, LinkedIn and Stripe have also said they will slash salaries for employees who leave pricey areas. Google recently told some employees who choose to work from home that they will face pay cuts of up to 25 percent.
Facebook frames its effort to make work virtual as part of its broader plan for the “metaverse,” an online shared space that melds the internet, augmented reality and virtual reality. In addition to working, users will be also be able to socialize, shop and play games, according to the CEO.
“Instead of being an internet that we look at, it’s an internet that we are a part of or that we can be inside of,” Zuckerberg said of the metaverse.
When King lightly pushed back on Zuckerberg’s effort to make work virtual, saying she missed being around her colleagues in the office, the Facebook CEO joked about being a shut-in.
“You’re probably a bit more extroverted than most people, I guess. Certainly more than me,” Zuckerberg said.
Source: Nypost
